


Call us Hetalia

by Amethystfairy1



Series: Call Us Hetalia [1]
Category: Hetalia: Axis Powers
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Alternate Universe - Human, Alternate Universe - Spies & Secret Agents, Angst, Brotherly Bonding, Brotherly Love, Character Death, Explosions, F/M, Family Feels, Fights, Fluff and Angst, Friendship, Implied/Referenced Torture, Interrogation, Kidnapping, Lots of familial feels in here folks, M/M, Martial Arts, Non-Graphic Violence, Private School, Rescue Missions, Team as Family, Training, Vigilantism
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-06-06
Updated: 2020-10-04
Packaged: 2021-03-04 07:08:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 14
Words: 30,720
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24579571
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Amethystfairy1/pseuds/Amethystfairy1
Summary: Hetalia Academy, beneath a private school facade it hides an elite academy for young vigilantes, a student body so diverse that they use their home countries as code names. Teams such as the Axis, the Allies, and the Nordic's study here, so when one of the students is stolen by an ancient enemy, these powers will come together to end the rivalry once and for all.
Relationships: America & China & England & France & Russia (Hetalia), Denmark & Finland & Iceland & Norway & Sweden (Hetalia), Germany & Japan & North Italy (Hetalia)
Series: Call Us Hetalia [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1776610
Comments: 35
Kudos: 41





	1. Over the Years

**Author's Note:**

> Hello! In case there is anyone here who had read these stories on FF.net, fear not, I am the same person, and while I wrote these stories several years ago, they still are very dear to me. So I've decided, since the quarantine has suddenly left me with oodles of free time, to go back, get the text, edit it *since lets be honest none of us were the best grammarically at 14* and repost them here! 
> 
> A bit of backstory, this 'Call us' Series was for me the first set of stories I ever wrote when I considered myself a "good" writer. By good, I mean it wasn't the incoherent rambles of someone who had no clue what they were doing. At the very least, I believe these stories were the first time I planned and executed something, even if it wasn't perfect. That's why I want to make sure they are on my profile here, and why I want to edit them for their return here to avoid all the embarrassment I feel when I re-read them occasionally and find the amount of confusion between 'your' and 'you're' impossible to handle. ;-; 
> 
> Anyway, that's my exposition dump, thank you for reading. If you've already been on the Call us Hetalia rollercoaster, I hope you'll enjoy a bit of a throwback with me, and without further do.
> 
> Please enjoy~

Emil always told himself that the boy who'd shown up one day alongside his so-called 'father' wasn't _really_ his brother.

At least, when he turned eleven, that's what he said. Previously, loneliness had taken a toll strong enough to cause him to latch quite firmly onto this figure, whoever he was. 

When Emil was younger, he had adored the boy, calling him 'big brother' and trailing behind him like a lost puppy. Lukas had always taken care of him, from the moment he'd walked through the door with their 'father'.

Lukas had been eight at the time, and Emil only six, but they had bonded while their family reunited. The two years had done nothing more than put Lukas at just old enough to care for Emil sensibly, not to mention how mature he had always been, no matter his age. 

For a few glorious years, everything was perfect. Emil had been born in Iceland, and for less than a year, he and his mother had lived there before coming to the States. Apparently, his brother had been born in Norway and was left with the 'father' there for several years before the parents had decided to bring the family together for the first time.

Emil didn't know if that man was his true father. His mother never straight out told him, yet she said Lukas was his brother. 

Always, Lukas was his brother. Until he'd gotten older. 

Until the perfect years began to fade until they were nothing but a distant memory. 

Their little piece of life had shifted. 

His mother fell very ill, he and Lukas had been at her side when she'd let out that last shuddering breath that shook her body for a final time, the smile she'd been forcing for her tearful children fading with the light in her eyes.

After that, the 'father' had changed as well. He became cruel; after a point, he'd even grown abusive. One night after a terrifying argument between his now thirteen-year-old brother and his father, Lukas had snapped. His fury at Emil's yet again coming to him in tears with a swelling bruise on his cheek, drove him to shove the horrid man they called 'father' away. 

He'd then promptly turned, seized Emil by the hand, and the two of them had left with nothing but the clothes on their backs and Emil's beloved stuffed puffin. They'd run off into the streets, and their 'father' if that was to be believed, hadn't bothered to go after them. 

Things had been difficult after that, but for once, fate seemed to be kind.

Lukas had been confiding in one of his teachers from school about the situation with his family, and the grandmother-like woman had given the boys a home without hesitation. With the kind lady providing them a home, the boys had continued with school, and the second he was old enough, Lukas had taken a job to help pay for anything he could for him and his brother.

Of course, there had to have been a fight.

It had been a horrible argument. The topic was Lukas coming to Emil's school so they could walk home. At the time, Lukas had recently turned sixteen, making Emil fourteen. Emil was just about to graduate into the same high school Lukas attended, but as it was the older of the pair still walked to the middle school almost every school day to walk home with his brother.

What was it that had started that fight? 

Was it that Emil felt embarrassed about his big brother coming to walk him home from school? 

Did Lukas say something wrong in front of Emil's friends? 

Whatever it was, it hadn't mattered. The fact that Emil couldn't draw it to his mind must have meant it hadn't been that important.

All Emil knew was that it had made him furious. He'd erupted at his brother the second they were out of sight of his friends. 

After attacking the older boy with a barrage of hateful words, Emil had paused to breathe. Hand's fisted, violet-blue eyes nearly identical to the one before him, narrow and glaring.

For the first time in his life, Emil saw tears welling hotly in those similar eyes. For as long as he could remember, the young Norwegian only once cried, and that had been the day of their mother's departure from this world. 

He wasn't that big on smiling either, or frowning, or really making any sort of expression. But hearing such words spewing from his brother's mouth, all directed at him, had brought the dam that had held back the tears since their mother's passing crashing down.

Emil had taken a breath to apologize, realizing he'd hurt the one person he had left in this world. Lukas hadn't said a word, he'd turned his back on his brother and ran before the younger could see the tears beginning to fight their way from behind his eyelids and leak out down his cheeks.

That night, dinner had been the same, and for a few small hours, Emil thought his brother had forgiven him for his words until he had heard the last words Lukas had to say before retiring to bed.

"I'm going to sleep. Good night, ma'am, dinner was great."

He hadn't said a thing to Emil. Usually, every night, without fail, never once forgetting, he'd always say 'Good night, brother' before he went to sleep, it was the one time of the day where Emil would let him get away with saying that they were brothers out loud, and every once in a blue moon, Emil would say, "Good night, brother." in response.

The next day in the inklings of early morning, Emil had awoken to the sound of Lukas screaming.

He sprinted into the hall, slipping and tripping on sheets that were tangled around his legs. He ripped the door to his brother's room open, the floor was strewn with his blankets and several pillows, just in time to see a figure disappear from the pried open window.

"LUKAS!"

Emil had dashed to the window, leaning out to see the telltale, pale blonde curl being forced into a car, disappearing along with a pair of wide violet-blue, terrified eyes staring up at the window before a gloved hand landed on the top of his head and pushed him out of sight. Emil had thought to run down the stairs and out the door to try and stop them, but now it was too late. The car started with a soft revving and took off down the street, after the initial screech of tires on the asphalt, the plain black van had been gone.

And so was Emil's big brother.

**_Two years later_ **

Chatter flooded the halls of the high school as the final bell rang, teens thronged the tile passageways, eager to return home for the weekend.

"What're you, like, doing this week, mate?" Li, Emil's closest friend, questioned.

Emil glanced over at the Chinese boy, who was wearing his usual red's, black's, and golds with overly long sleeves and sneakers. Emil himself wore a weathered gray long sleeve with a brown cargo jacket on top, jeans, and white sneakers.

He shrugged lazily.

"Who knows....whatever I have time for after I finish my homework." He replied.

"Cool," Li said, that was his usual response to a statement such as that.

A horn honked above the sea of voices and clomping feet, Li glanced to the road to see an older teen with a lighter head of brown hair than Li's, a goofy smile on his face. He was waving out the driver's window at him.

"There's Yong Soo. We're going on a day trip to the mountains on Saturday, so I'm afraid I won't be able to, like, see you until Monday. Later!"

With that, the boy waved to his gray-haired friend and ran off to jump into the backseat of the massive eight-seater car, him having seven siblings and no parents, a car of this size was definitely necessary.

Emil had met Li in a way neither of them was happy with, but both were glad to have each other. 

Li's oldest brother, Yao, had turned sixteen, and not a week later he'd been kidnapped by a large black van, the next year his second oldest brother Kiku had been taken away the exact same way, a little over two weeks past sixteen. 

The police had connected this with how Lukas had been taken barely two weeks after his own sixteenth birthday had been celebrated the same month as Kiku's. Emil had met Li and his remaining five older siblings, Yong Soo being oldest among them now that Yao and Kiku were gone. Miracle have it, the boy had turned sixteen a little under a year ago, and nothing had happened to him. Same with his twin, who'd turned sixteen mere minutes later. 

The extra precautions they had taken may have had something to do with it. The pair of youngest siblings sort of just hung around with each other. Occasionally they talked about what happened to their brothers. Most of the time, they choose to just know the other knew what they were going through, and they turned out to be enough for the duo.

They never discussed the strangeness of it all. How such similar kidnappings could happen, and how it could become such a string, form such a pattern, without any evidence showing up. 

How a city like theirs could have things like this happening, without even a shred of a clue as to the whereabouts of the missing teens.

No. They never talked about it. But they knew each other.

And that was enough.

Emil waved back before turning to head home, treading down the same sidewalk he always took, he froze when he saw a familiar black van pull around the opposite corner.

The kid shook his head. _No way, stop dreaming, that's not the same car, there's no way it could be._

These thoughts didn't stop the young man from dodging across the street and peering around the corner.

He was greatly surprised when, with a soft hissing sound, Emil got a face full of gas from a gloved hand and a person who's features blurred like smoke when he tried to get a good look at them standing over him.

Then his eyes rolled up, and he went unconscious.


	2. Unite the Nordics

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A bit of time spent with Lukas now as we head into the depth of Hetalia Academy! Please enjoy~

**_In an underground base._ **

"C'mon, Nor! Let's go spar!"

"You're annoying, Den."

This exchange seemed to have been going on for the past two hours, Mathias shouting excitedly to his teammate to go do something, and his teammate turning the page of his book and repeating the same sentence.

"You're annoying, Den," Lukas said again as his Danish friend fell over the back of the couch to lie upside-down next to him, feet kicking in the air.

Mathias's spiky blonde hair was nearly touching the floor as he hung his head and groaned.

"I'm sooooo bored."

"You say that now, but what will you say when it's time to go to class tomorrow?" Their friend, Tino, asked cheekily from his workshop at the opposite end of their base.

In the academy which all of them attended, the students were grouped into teams. They got to choose when they arrived to either go it alone, attempt to form their own team or join an existing one. Most students chose the latter option, as Lukas had.

The boy sighed as he glanced over to Mathias, across to Tino, who'd just lit a blowtorch for some reason, then he heard the silent, imposing footsteps and felt the presence of the fourth member of their team, named the 'Nordic 4'. He came down the ladder from the balcony above.

Their base was the same as pretty much all of the other bases beneath the innocent facade the Hetalia Academy put up above them. It had a decently sized living room, which was positioned beneath and partly to the side of the thin metal wire catwalk balcony, accessible by ladder, that led to the boy's rooms. 

There were five doors up there, hiding rooms behind them, in a neat row, the fifth room was empty since the team only had four members, but they were searching to expand to their full capacity of five. The living room had two long couches to either side of a flat-screen TV mounted on the wall, and two large armchairs in front of the TV set a few feet behind and to the inside of each couch.

Currently, the irked Lukas and the bored Mathias were stationed on the couch that was nearest to the ladder leading down from the catwalk. The entire wall was painted a modern gray, dotted with prizes and plaques the team had won in their two years of activity along with framed pictures of a few of there accomplishments along with one of them in their uniforms. In that one, Mathias had an arm flung over Lukas's shoulders, the other tossed out to the opposite side. A closed-eyed grin spread across his face, spiky blonde locks tousled about. Lukas had his arms crossed, shoulders hunched, and a clearly irritated expression on his face. Tino was standing in front of Berwald, his usual joyful smile bright, Berwald behind him had a stoic look of unconcern written on his features.

Berwald, the final and largest member of their group, adjusted his glasses before turning to go see what Tino was up too.

The end of their base, opposite of the door, was about twenty feet by twenty feet of gadgets, gizmos, and, at the moment, fire. Tino was using his blowtorch on one of his latest creations and was getting rather carried away.

When Berwald walked up, he shut off the torch.

"Hiyaaa!" He sang cheerfully as he made to heave the strange device from the small metal table where he'd been soaking it in fire back to the workbench with mitt covered hands. Lukas couldn't really tell exactly what this newest addition to their arsenal was, but knowing Tino, it probably, in some capacity, could blow up.

Tino was the tech expert of their group, but he had a bad habit of enjoying explosions. Any given device that had come from the Finnish boy's mess of workbenches, scrap metal, and screws, had at least one button that made it switch over to bomb mode. It was a strange combination, considering the teen was very kind-hearted, overly cheery almost all the time, and incredibly nimble. However, he wasn't very talented in the field, but his extraordinary creative mind and the technological know-how to bring his ideas to life were genius. 

Mathias took over the wild side of the team, he could improvise and come up with new angles to the original plans in the time before the bullets could reach them.

Mind, that happened quite a lot with a group such as this.

Berwald was the offensive member of the team, and he made one hell of a getaway driver. He also had the knowledge to operate the many pieces of equipment in their jobs in the field. A place Tino rarely dared venture due to his lack of physical strength and stature. He was skilled in hand-to-hand enough to scrape through his sessions in the training arena and gym, he preferred to keep everyone connected back in their van, calm and always upbeat, he was the perfect man for the job. 

He was one of the rare exceptions to the academy's sixteen-year-old rule. He'd been miserable in his old school. The Finn had been able to make it through the initiation in the training arena, just barely, at fifteen years of age, and as such, though he was a year younger than Lukas, he was a few months ahead of him in the academy.

Lukas was the fighter of the group, in his two years at the academy he'd managed to learn enough different ways to deck a man to earn him a spot among the academy's elite. As to the jobs these teams performed, many would call them criminals, but they had a different view on the subject. Lukas could still recall the overwhelming feeling of right when he and his new team had completed their first job two years ago, simple enough, they'd used a camera blotter of Tino's design, climbed the side wall of a large business that the school's intel had caught dumping illegal substances into the nearby ocean waters.

Lukas could remember the speed of his breath and the thrill rising in his chest when he'd sprinted through the deserted halls with his teammates covering his escape, clutching in an iron grip the incriminating evidence they'd dug up. He saw vividly in his mind the ground rushing up to meet him as he leaped from the second-story window and rappelled down using the rope they'd attached during infiltration. 

He could remember switching on the TV two days later and seeing how the police had moved in and arrested the leaders of the business. How they'd gotten an 'anonymous' tip containing the pieces of the puzzle they'd been missing in order to seize the company on claims of illegal waste disposal.

Lukas rolled his eyes at the thought as he snapped his book shut, letting out another casual.

"You're annoying, Den."

To interrupt his friend's now several minute long tirade on his supposed boredom.

The Hetalia Academy had quite an impressive feat to boast, so many different nations were represented in the school that for code names, all of them used the places where they'd been born.

The entire reason that Lukas, Mathias, Berwald, and Tino, also known as Norway, Denmark, Sweden, and Finland, had become the 'Nordic 4'

The Norwegian of the group stood up as Mathias rolled over to take up the entire couch now that his teammate had moved.

Lukas wore a pair of black pants with many pockets, both out in the open and cleverly hidden, with a black belt, and black shoes. His undershirt was long-sleeved, and dark red, button-up and collared, with a white ribbon-like tie and the winged Hetalia emblem embroidered onto the lapel in black. His usual black jacket with a red-winged Hetalia symbol on the lapel hung ready by the door. His signature cross-shaped hair clip, though now black instead of white to match the rest of his clothes, still sat proudly among his blondish gray locks and curled cowlick.

All of the others wore variations of the same uniform. Tino with a black vest and no tie, while Berwald wore a black vest with a black necktie, all wearing the red long sleeve. Mathias wore a collared shirt similar to Lukas's, with short sleeves instead of long, and a black tie allowed to swing wild instead of the way Berwald's was tucked neatly in, with the symbol in black the lapel for them all. All of them were about to go back to what they were doing when suddenly the speaker set up in the very corner of the ceiling crackled to life, and all eyes instantly went up to it.

"Alright, hope it's something exciting!" Denmark cried out, pumping both fists in front of himself, eyes sparkling.

Norway rolled his eyes at him again and listened as the voice of the school headmaster, Romulus, though there was scarcely a moment anyone ever called him his actual name, his code name from when he worked in the field was far more popular.

He'd been so good, the Italian man had earned himself the code name 'Rome.'

All around the academy, eyes raised to the speakers in anticipation as their exuberant superior began to speak.

"We've got something exciting for you all!" He exclaimed in his rich, commanding tone of voice.

"I knew it!" Mathias cried out, but was quickly shushed by all his teammates.

"Today, we are welcoming a new student into our beloved Hetalia Academy! I expect each and every one of you to treat him kindly and help him feel as welcome as possible, and I also expect _each and every one_ of you to come to the main training arena, Arena 1, of course, to watch his initiation!"

_Fun, we get to see some poor kid that's barely sixteen fight his way through the course at full strength and nearly get himself killed._

Lukas could still remember his initiation, and it hadn't been fun. He'd dodged, rolled, been smashed, and at one point had been flung against a wall by an exploding mine in the ground. As Tino and Mathias scrambled up the ladder to get to their rooms, wanting to grab a few things before they headed out, Lukas thought back to the time after he'd gotten out of the infirmary from his initiation, in a new school uniform and a perplexed state of mind.

**_Two years ago_ **

Lukas collapsed into a chair in the large mess hall, the smell of the food was overwhelming, but the thought of eating a single bite caused the Norwegian's stomach to turn over.

"Hiyaa!"

He glanced up, emotionless violet-blue eyes scanning a petite, cheerful-looking blonde wearing a uniform similar to his own.

"How're you feeling? You know, you did great, I nearly broke my arm when the mine flung _me_ into the wall!"

The boy laughed to this memory, and Lukas continued sizing him up without a word.

"Anyway."

The blonde stuck his hand out.

"My name is Tino; I'm on a team called the Nordic 3, it's just me, Berwald, and Mathias."

Lukas stared at Tino's hand but didn't take it and didn't offer his own name. Tino kept on smiling as he let his arm drop to his side, rocking back on his heels as he tucked his hands behind his back.

"Oh, here they are now!" Tino glanced over his shoulder as the other two members of his team came over, both donning school colors.

"Sup!" Mathias shouted way too loudly as Berwald nodded.

"What do you want with me?" Lukas asked without even introducing himself after the Finnish blonde had pointed out who was who.

Tino didn't seem even the smallest bit deterred by his harsh first words.

"Well, we were hoping you'd let us make the Nordic 3, the Nordic 4!"

Lukas blinked.

"You don't even know if I'm Nordic." He pointed out.

"Sure we do, you look like one!" Mathias said happily, prodding Lukas in the forehead and causing his head to rock back and forth once.

"You're annoying." He said dully, not bothering to put much emphasis on his voice.

Mathias's face fell for a moment as he looked Lukas over.

To the newest student's surprise, he started cackling with laughter.

"You think so?" He chuckled.

Lukas sighed, studying each of the others carefully.

He figured he had nothing to lose. "Fine."

He stood and crossed his arms, taking on the most intimidating stance he could, with was actually quite daunting, and spoke.

"I'm Lukas; I'm from Norway, so if you're asking me to join your team or something, fine."

With that, Lukas had walked off to get something to eat and was secretly pleased when his new teammates followed along behind him.

Mathias chattered his ear off, beginning to call him a nickname that would stick, and Lukas responding the same way every time.

"This is really good! You should try them, their from Berwald's place!"

"Not as good at Italian ones."

"Don't get down on yourself, Sve, they're great! I'm sure your country will get even better at them too!"

"Listen to Finn and try one, Nor!"

"No. Your annoying, Den."

None of them knew of the lasting, loyal friendship that this first conversation would form.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There we go! Please drop a comment down below, they help Tino stop getting so scared all the time, and please leave kudos if you haven't been here before! Thanks for reading!


	3. Reunion of Sorts

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Carrying on into the academy's bizarre initiation!   
> Please enjoy~

**_At the entry to the training arena._ **

The entire underground section of the academy was designed very much the same as the team bases. Walls were alternating of grays and dark coffee like colors. With many doorways into labs, training areas, classrooms, and computer labs. They had to literally drag Tino passed the workshop window when he saw they were working on a new undetectable form of easily buried land mines.

As they moved through the halls, they ran into plenty of other students.

Hercules, code-named Greece, was wrestling with Sadik, code-named Turkey, in the hall over something involving cats and something about Sadik's weird white mask. A group of female students, including a miserable and obviously getting dragged along Vash, code-named Switzerland, passed by. His little sister Lilli, code-named Liechtenstein, was pulling her older brother along by the hand to make sure he wouldn't try to get out of going to the arena.

It was well known that the blonde sniper hated heavily crowded area's and getting him to even eat in the mess hall with everyone was a stretch. Lilli was perfectly happy to be with others and often pulled her protective brother along with her. 

She was speaking with Seychelles, Ukraine, and the well feared Belarus. All of them donned unique uniforms in the same shades of red and black. The majority of the girls donned dresses, except for Lilli, who was wearing an outfit that matched her brother's to a tee.

"Lilli and Vash are matching again with those long double-button jackets and boots, who do you think gets's to decide when they do that? I mean, she's already got the same haircut as him, but his hair is pretty long, so I guess it looks cute on her. Plus that adorable purple ribbon, even though it clashes with her outfit." Mathias asked Lukas as the group passed by.

Norway shrugged, "Guess they like to match." He responded.

"No duh, Sherlock, but why?"

"How should I know, go ask them, why don't you? Since when were you a fashion guru? Just shut up." Lukas shot back.

Tino laughed,

"I think we should just leave it at 'they like to match' unless we want the Academy's top sniper's on us. Vash taught Lilli how to shoot since she was a little kid, she's almost as good as him."

"We know, Tino. Gun handling class was a bitch, thanks to her." Mathias grumbled, a depressed look appearing on his face at the memory.

Tino just shrugged and carried on. "You know, I also heard that Lilli wears that ribbon because Vash gave it to her before brought to the academy, thinking she'd never see him again, she treasured it and wore it every day. Then when she was brought in and found out he was alive, she just couldn't break the habit or the attachment, so she insisted on continuing to wear the ribbon every single day."

The other three stared, "How do you know that?" Mathias questioned.

Tino tilted his head innocently.

"Vash told me." Was all he said.

"The only things Vash has ever told me in two years of being in four different classes together is, 'Leave me alone' or 'Go away' so how did you manage to get into a full conversation with him?" Lukas asked, curious as well.

Tino shrugged, "He was eating in the mess hall by himself, he always eats late to avoid everyone, when I came in for a late lunch, it was just the two of us in the hall. I sat down next to him and started talking to him. He was sorta awkward but not mean or anything. Turns out he has a phobia of crowded places, to many people make him nervous, which is an understatement to be sure. He gets freaked out when there are too many faces, even when he knows all of them. He's not antisocial or something. In fact, if you catch him in a good mood, he's actually really friendly."

Lukas raised his eyebrows, "You give a whole new meaning to the phrase, 'Killing them with kindness' y'know?"

Tino smiled brightly, "Nah, I don't kill people, I just do my job. Build stuff, type stuff, and maybe blow stuff up."

"Smart, scary, and possibly explosive. All packed into this tiny thing." Mathias teased, placing a hand on his teammate's head and screwing up his hair.

"I just haven't hit a growth spurt yet!" Tino exclaimed testily, knocking Mathias's hand off of his head.

"I wouldn't hold out hope." Mathias snickered.

Tino puffed his cheeks but let the comment slide in favor of asking a new question. "You think it'll be another young entry? I hope so!" 

Lukas shrugged his response, Mathias agreed with Tino in hoping so, and Berwald did his weird grunt that always seemed to scare Tino stiff.

"P-P-Please stop that..." Finland begged, shaking like a leaf after Sweden shocking him.

"Sorry," Berwald said shortly.

"AII-YAH!"

All of them looked up to see Yao storming across the open area in front of the entry to the training arena. They were still underground, now in a large dome-shaped area that was in front of the arena. 

As was most of the academy was underground, there were several support beams to hold up the enormous dome. 

Yao's jacket was red, with black trimming, black pants bunched around his ankles with white wrapping and black shoes. Currently, he was being pursued by a very persistent teen with grayish hair, a round, young-looking face, and a towering over six-foot frame.

"Leave me alone, Ivan!" 'China' groaned, waving his overly long red sleeves at the taller student.

The Russian gave him a cheery little smile. He wore a large, long coat in red and black, with a rippling red scarf trailing behind him.

"Become one, da?" He suggested.

"Shut up, no! I do not want to start a team with you! I'm on the Allies team!" The Chinese replied, waving his arms so furiously his brown ponytail shook in the air behind him.

Just then, the Allies arrived through the opposite door, and Nordics stopped to watch this scene along with a few dozen other students heading for the arena, including a less than enthusiastic looking Vash and a concerned looking Lilli, pure eagle sharp eyes wide.

"Yo, Yao! Bad news, bro, Antonio ditched us to go start a team with Lovino!"

Alfred, code-named 'America,' yelled loudly as he walked over, ignoring Yao's heaving chest from so much screaming and arm flailing.

"This isn't good! In fact, this is terrible! Though Antonio gave up his place with us out of _amour_ , it is still disastrous timing! We need another strength back up; without one, we'll have to give up our newest mission!"

Francis, code-named 'France', exclaimed, tossing a hand over his forehead in a dramatic display and flipping his red jacket cape.

"Thanks for summing that up, wanker. So he ditched us to sleep in the same apartment as his boyfriend, guess I can't blame him. He gave us notice, but none of us actually believed he'd convince Lovino to let it happen. How the hell are we going to get a new member that quickly!?" Arthur, code-named 'England' or 'Britain,' growled.

Ignoring his teammates brawling in the background, shouting insults like

"Stupid snail slurper!" or "Lame black sheep!" Alfred glanced over at Ivan.

"Say, who's this dude?" The American asked.

Yao began making frantic 'no no no please no' gestures behind Ivan's back as the incredibly tall teen replied.

"Hello, I'm Ivan, I am being new here, I'm sixteen and a little bit, from Russia." Ivan greeted.

America blinked.

"You aren't a techie, are you?"

Yao had to abandon subtlety and was wagging his head back and forth in a panic.

"Nyet. I am field operative, and I'm quite good at being the overpowering."

Yao started swiping his arm back and forth across his neck, attempting to get the message across that this was a terrible idea.

"So how'd you like to join the Allies, bro?" America asked.

Yao tumbled to the floor in a heap.

"I would very much be liking that, I'm sure we'll all be the good friends."

Ivan said happily as Yao stumbled to his feet miserably.

"Save me." He mumbled as the team, now happily welcoming a new member, except Yao, moved off to go into the training arena.

"Mein gott, Feli! Get off of me!"

A brutish German voice echoed as a tall blonde in a military jacket with the Hetalia symbol on the left breast pocket, entered, and he looked none too happy.

"But France is somewhere in here!" A brunette, also in red and black military-style clothes, clinging to his ankle and getting dragged along wailed.

"Why are you afraid of that imbecile? You could take him if you just tried instead of wailing 'I surrender, I surrender!' I swear, your good for nothing!"

"I can drive super well!"

"You can avoid enemy vehicles while giving us heart attacks!"

As Ludwig, 'Germany' and Feliciano, 'Italy,' made their slow, less than normal way, into the arena, another teen came racing after them.

"Wait for me, please!" His voice sounded soft and none too threatening, he wore a pair of glasses, had short, black hair, and wide expressive brown eyes. He wore a black jacket with a Nehru collar, and red trimming with the Hetalia symbol in red on his lapel. Black pants and black shoes completed his uniform. He was currently clutching several books and a folder that was spilling papers around behind him.

He was struggling to collect the papers he was dropping when Tino walked over to help him.

"Thank you very much." The teen gave Finland a short bow when he'd regained all of his papers, then turned and hurried off after his Axis team.

"For such an organized guy, Kiku sure can get flustered easily," Mathias said.

"Well, at least he's a lot easier to calm down than his brother, Yao's arm flailing could take someone's head off! I even heard a rumor that one time he chopped a hole in a wall when Francis spilled Arthur's tea all over that precious stuffed panda of his! He's not the best hand-to-hand in the academy for nothing!"

Tino pointed out as he and his team joined the stream of people heading inside the arena along with the rest of the crowd that had been watching the Axis and Allies, two of the most powerful teams in the academy, enter. 

The Allies were number 1, and the Axis were nipping at their heels. The Nordic's had been holding their spot at number 3 for several months now but were facing threats from the 'Baltic Trio' and Vash, Lilli, Roderich, and Gilbert, who'd more recently formed and were struggling to find a team name. 

While Gilbert, 'Prussia,' wanted 'The Awesome squad', Roderich, 'Austria,' wished of something more refined. The Swiss siblings were known as the 'Swiss Snipers,' everyone forgetting or ignoring the fact that Lilli wasn't technically Swiss. Unfortunately, the two weren't able to think of a good team name either.

Lukas had to admit, as Mathias dragged them into a run to grab front row seats, the arena had quite the setup. 

The area down below the rows of seating was about the size of a running track and its field, with nothing but dirt and a few random walls and poles here and there. This was the more extravagant of the five arena's, the other four were much smaller and more suited for actual training, this arena was the one used for school competitions, elite practice, and, of course, initiation. 

The goal of the initiation was to make it from the beginning, the door where you'd enter, to the exit tunnel. But sounded a lot easier than it actually was, what with walls coming out of the ground, the bruising disk's being shot at you, and other surprises hidden away beneath the unassuming dirt.

Everyone easily spotted Headmaster Rome, in a vivid red suit with a white undershirt and black tie, and, of course, the Hetalia wings on his breast pocket. He was up in his usual seat, front and center. When the door to the arena opened, and the crowd of students broke into loud cheers and encouraging shouts.

Lukas's mouth dropped open slightly when Emil entered through the large doors. They slammed behind him, and he instantly spun and began to pound on them, wanting to be let out.

"You can do it!" Tino called down to the younger teen.

Lukas leaned forward and gripped the bar of the divider.

"No way..." He murmured.

"What's up with you, Nor?" Mathias questioned.

"That's..."

Lukas didn't get to finish, because then, the initiation began.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> That's all for now, please drop a comment down below, they help Emil (because obviously that's who it is) survive the arena, and please leave kudos if you've never been here before! Thanks for reading!


	4. Initiation

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Carrying into the Initiation of Hetalia Academy!   
> Please enjoy~

**_Down in the training arena_ **

_Is this what happened to Lukas? Is this what he went through all that time ago? Kidnapped and tossed into an arena?_

Emil wondered as he backed up, his nerves tingling, feeling the machines of the arena powering to life. A wave of applaud erupted from the crowd, and as Emil's eyes sifted through the faces, he couldn't spot anyone significantly older than he. Aside from a few adults settled into a separate box along the wall at about the half-way point, it was all teenagers. 

A disk came firing out of the wall, its speed slower than that of a bullet, but still fast enough to be taken as a threat. Emil cried out at the unexpected pain when it slammed into his shoulder, exploding into shards on impact.

Lukas, meanwhile, was feeling a surge of emotion rather unlike him. Cold and calculating was his entire gig, after all, but staring down at his brother in the arena, all sorts of hectics thoughts were whipping about his brain at lightning speed.

And out of all of those thoughts, he took the one he deemed most helpful, albeit most strange for him, out of the lot. 

"Move! Go forward, stupid, you can't last long just standing there! Run!" Lukas barked, flinging himself up against the bar railing, his voice rising to the many other suggestions and screams of the other students.

The other Nordic's were shocked, Lukas rarely ever bothered to clap at any events in the arena, much less be on his feet shouting and pointing.

Emil could have sworn one of the voices in the crowd was familiar, but considering the myriad of voices thrumming in his ears, he pushed it aside. Of all the suggestions being flung at him in a confused tangle, he picked out that everyone insisted he should get moving. Taking that to heart, he sprinted into the stadium, leaving behind the entrance door as the obstacles yawned before him. He managed a few ducks and dodges before diving behind one of the many angular walls that jutted from the ground here and there.

Several other disks smacked into the shield, the teen took in his throbbing shoulder. He'd broken his arm before, and that hadn't been pretty, but if he was struck by any more of these projectiles, it would be more pain than he'd ever suffered.

Emil started sprinting from wall to wall, thinking he was doing well as he reached the half-way point. His breath was rattling in his chest, tears had been prickling behind his eyes for the majority of the experience, and while the throbbing of his shoulder had gone down, he was pretty sure that was just the adrenaline talking. 

Still, he pushed onward and kept his eyes on the door ahead of him.

That was when he put one more foot forward, falling into a dead sprint, and a wall shot out of the dirt with a loud crunching sound.

The white-haired boy let out a shocked cry, stumbling backward as the grinding of mechanisms beneath the ground sent pulses through his feet. The voices cheering reached a fever pitch as he stared down the wall, and he could practically hear more of the disks whizzing his way. 

So, with a sudden steel cold resolve, as he ran straight at the wall.

Lukas felt an overwhelming sense of pride as Emil launched, braced one foot momentarily against the side of the rising obstacle. He appeared over the edge and leaped the wall before it could come all the way up, planting his hands on the top and kicking both legs over as he hurtled the barrier.

"Yes!" Lukas cheered, ignoring that his friends were staring at him like he had just grown a second head.

To be so excited, so genuinely involved, went sharply against his usual persona. Yet, at the moment, he couldn't find it in him to care.

"Go!" Lukas shouted, cupping his hands around his mouth to project his shouts even further. 

Disappointment came in a low tone from the gathered throngs, as Emil went staggering to one side as another disk struck his side, the pale gray material shattering upon impact. Clutching at the left of his abdomen and gasping as hot pokers stabbed into his chest, Emil pushed himself forward again. Two more struck home as Emil wove about, managing to dodge the rest of the bombardment.

With his side now saturated with pain, the white-haired teen doubled his speed.

The entire crowd winced when his foot hit the ground a soft click was heard.

"Wha-"

That was all Emil had time to say before the mine he'd stepped on exploded.

A scream tore it's way up from his chest as he was thrown the length of the arena, hitting the ground hard and bouncing up slightly, dust being tossed haphazardly into the air as Emil slid across the dirt ground, rolling to a crumpled stop.

"Don't give up! Go! Emil, get up, and run! Do you hear me? Listen to the mines! They make noise when you step on them before they blow! Get up and RUN!" Lukas screamed.

"You know him!?" Mathias demanded, but Lukas was too absorbed in his brother's run to give him so much as a glance.

Emil's heart was pounding in his chest as he rolled to the right to avoid another disk that was fired at him. His entire body was throbbing, and he felt as though he could sense the blood coursing hotly through his veins.

Someone in the crowd close to him had shouted to get up and run several times and told him about the mines. The fact that the person had also known his name slipped from Emil's thoughts at the moment, and he figured that was the best plan for the time. 

He planted his feet beneath him and shoved himself to his feet.

"I'm going! I'm going!"

He found himself yelling back to the person as he began to sprint for the door again.

Lukas shook his head and smirked when he heard Emil's tense response.

_Always so stubborn._

He thought to himself as the rest of the Nordic's peppered him with questions without receiving so much as a shake of the head as an answer.

This time when another click resounded, Emil was prepared.

Diving forward and spreading out his arms and legs, he recalled how he'd once read somewhere that skydivers used the air to push themselves in the correct directions. Emil clung to the little he remembered about that fact and aimed for the door.

He surprised himself and everyone else in the arena when it worked.

"Impressive!" Headmaster Rome exclaimed as the crowd roared its approval of the move.

The blast from behind the teen propelled his form across the remaining space, and with a few, final, stumbling steps and a clumsy dive roll, Emil skidded through the door.  
  


"Safe!" Rome shouted as if he were an umpire in baseball, his voice ringing through the air as the arena shut down. Lukas collapsed back into his chair, arms limp at his sides with relief, and down in the exit tunnel, lying flat on his back, gasping for breath, Emil thought.

_That person telling me what to do. Could it have been..._

He was cut off when several staff members surrounded him, praising his performance and helping him to his feet, pulling him off to get bandaged up and, did he hear right when the woman had said 'pick a school uniform?'

_Save me..._

**_The next day during lunch._ **

Emil's mind was reeling from the amount of information he'd had to process in less than twelve hours.

This was a school for genius, technology expert, sniper, highly trained, teenage vigilantes?

Of course, that was a bit of an overstatement. Some of the kids were geniuses, some were tech experts, some were eagle-eyed guns specialists, some were physically gifted instead of mentally, but very few were all four. 

Still, it was a lot to take in that he was expected to join a team, start studying and attending classes and workouts, and performing missions at this Hetalia Academy.

Surprisingly enough, the thought of trying to run away never once came to mind, perhaps it was because this was something he thought he might actually be good at, perhaps because he figured there was no point because he'd be caught.

Perhaps it was because this uniform was the _coolest freaking_ _outfit_ he'd ever been able to wear.

He wore a black long sleeve, button-up and collared, with the emblem on the lapel in red, with a red vest with the symbol in the same spot in black and red ribbon tie, and a black cargo jacket with the Hetalia emblem on the lapel, and several thick pockets. With plain black pants covered with the same design of cargo type pockets. Plain black shoes finished his attire as he stepped into the mess hall.

Coffee colored walls, red and black-clad students filing in and out by the dozen, and a selection so huge Emil felt like he was at a world market. He saw a group pass by, the Asian one with the ponytail, the knee-length robe-like shirt, and crazy long red sleeves had a large plate of something that looked like Lo Mein with shrimp and a pair of chopsticks. The taller blonde held a bowl of, was that escargot? He was arguing in a heavy accent to a Brit walking along behind him. One was gnawing on a hamburger and holding a cup of soda while the British guy, still yelling at his French classmate, dipped a fried piece of fish in Tatar sauce. The tallest one held a steaming bowl of something looking somewhat like borscht. They chattered away as they passed on their way to a table.

The tables were all high with high stools to sit at, they were all-metal, and most were taken. Around the very edge of the mess hall was a few evenly placed armchairs. Emil crumpled into one and started rubbing his temples, trying to figure out what to do next.

"Hiyaa!"

The exact same greeting his brother had heard two years ago was what caused Emil to snap his head up.

"Um, hi?" He tried as Tino came practically skipping over.

"You did amazing, I've never seen anyone use the explosion to fling themselves to the exit tunnel, that was so smart! I ended up kissing the wall when the mine got me! "

The blonde put out his hand, hoping this time to make a good impression.

"I'm Tino, code name Finland. What's your name?"

Emil furrowed his brow.

"You're...Finland?"

Tino laughed as Emil hesitantly excepted the handshake.

"That's right! This academy is so diverse, we all get to use the country we're from as a code name! My name's really Tino like I said, so who are you?"

Emil decided that he liked this cheery, upbeat older boy.

"I'm Emil...I don't know as a code name, I'm from Iceland originally though."

Tino's grin widened.

"That's perfect! We don't have anyone from Iceland! So there you go, your code name is Iceland!"

"I'll be calling him Icy, though! Pure gold code name!"

Emil looked up when a tall blonde with a wildly swinging necktie and red tee-shirt came sprinting over, followed by a less enthusiastic gray-haired teen, with a sturdy build and wire-rimmed glasses.

"Sup? I'm Mathias, but they call me Denmark!" The spiky blonde-haired boy exclaimed, jumping up and doing a fist pump for no apparent reason.

"Berwald...also Sweden." The large teen said in a shockingly deep voice.

"Guys, this is Emil, he's gonna be Iceland!" Tino said, gesturing to Emil, who waved.

_So much yelling._

The newest student thought as their loud voices washed over him.

"So, we were wondering, I'm sure you've heard that you have the choice of joining a team, building your own, or going it solo." Tino began.

"We want you to join up with us, make the Nordic 4 the Nordic 5!"

Emil looked between the three faces ranging from hopeful to barely smiling.

"I only count three of you." He deadpanned.

"Oh, well, there's..."

Mathias stopped talking as he glanced over his shoulder.

"Where the hell did Nor go?" He demanded.

Tino shrugged, "I thought he was with you."

"Eh!?" Sweden did his furious face.

"EEP!" Tino was quaking from the surprise, face pale and eyes scrunched up.

"I thought I told you to please stop doing that, I'm fragile." Tino moaned.

"Sorry." The Swede mumbled.

Mathias sighed.

"They do that all the time, don't mind it." He said as he turned back to Emil.

"We do have a fourth member, the hand-to-hand fighter of our team, he's just..." Mathias turned and scanned the mess hall again, recognizing each of the many faces but not seeing the one had was searching for.

"M.I.A."

Emil blinked.

"Ok...so you want me to join your team?" Emil asked.

"Yup, sure do!" Tino exclaimed happily.

Berwald, arms crossed, grunted his consent to the idea.

"Well...?" Mathias asked.

Emil shrugged; he liked these other students well enough for only knowing them a few minutes and figured the fourth couldn't be that bad.

"Sure, I'll join, it would be nice to have someone help me out with getting settled here," Emil said, smiling slightly.

"YES!" Mathias screamed, jumping up and down while Tino tossed his arms into the air, and the corners of Berwald's mouth pulled up into what, by his standards, could be considered a smile.

"We're a complete team! Finally!" Mathias exclaimed, slapping a high five with Tino.

"So five is the limit?" Emil asked as he followed his new teammates down the halls towards their base.

"Yeah, and you need five to take on a lot of the best missions."

Tino explained.

"And you _do_ have a fourth member, right?" Emil asked, double-checking.

"Of course, just wait until you meet Nor, he was going nuts during your run, it was weird to."  
  


Mathias turned to look at Emil. "He knew your name and was freaking out over you making it, yelling at you and stuff. Normally he barely ever smiles or says anything more than what's necessary." The Dane tucked his hands behind his head, his shirt stretching over the front of his chest slightly as he did so.

Emil's face looked concerned as they approached a door with the label 'Nordic 4' on it.

"We'll get that changed to 'Nordic 5' now that you're on board," Tino commented.

"Wait...Nor as in from Norway?" Emil asked nervously.

"He sure is. He's such a diva, too, he wears hair clips and uses a hot iron and everything!" Mathias exclaimed.

"He could deck you fifteen different ways and not even knock that clip out of place, Den, diss him at your own risk. Besides, who knew a hot iron would make your hair that silky, huh?" Tino pointed out as he burst open the door.

"You've been paying attention to the silkiness of Nor's hair?" Mathias asked, incredulous.

Tino scowled. "What? It's really nice! I can appreciate his nice hair!" 

Electing this conversation was going nowhere, Sweden just opened the door to the base and stepped inside.

"Yo, Nor! We're in luck! Icy here agreed to be our fifth member!" Mathias cried out as he sprung inside behind him.

"You're annoying, Den. And I heard you making fun of my hair clip. Shut it. It just keeps my bangs out of my eyes while training."

"You wore it before you got here!"

"My bangs still got in my eyes back then."

"Than, cut your hair!"

"You're annoying, Den."

"What did I say that time!?"

Emil froze.

There he was, sitting less than two yards away from him, a bored expression on his face as he thumbed through his notebook.

His brother was alive, his brother Lukas, and he found all he could do was stare.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> That's all for now! We're leaving it on an awkward stare down...fun times? Maybe? Probably not. Anywho, please drop a comment down below, they help Emil stop staring, and please leave kudos if you've never been here before! Thanks for reading!


	5. Welcome

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And now we've got Emil and Lukas's...reunion? Yeah, that sounds about right. Please enjoy~

_**In the Nordic's Base** _

"Anyway, this is our new member, he's our first recruit from Iceland, so we're still the Nordic's!"

Lukas's head snapped up, and, for the first time since hearing those horrible words from his mouth over two years ago, he was eye to eye with his brother.

"Oh my god...Lukas?" Emil demanded, stepping inside as Lukas's eyes narrowed.

_Why do you always have to be there!? Can you not just leave me the hell alone? I hate you!_

Emil stood, not daring to move, not sure of what to say or do when he realized the last time those eyes had looked into his own, they'd been flooded with tears.

"I should have known you'd ask him. I should have just..."

The older of the brothers stood from his seat, a swift swipe of his fingers, closing his notebook a lot harder than necessary. The aggression seemed to be a point to say he wasn't sure how to finish his previous statement. Then, he walked around the couch and towards Emil.

For one small moment, Emil thought his brother was moving to greet him, to show him that he wasn't angry with him about those words.

When Lukas stopped and turned to the ladder, those hopes were dashed.

_"Fine."_

Norway repeated as he climbed up the ladder, his notebook tucked under one arm.

The door to his room slammed shut, causing the metal grate walkway to tremble slightly as the sound echoed through the base.

"Whoa." Mathias broke the few awkward seconds of silence after Lukas's exit.

"So, what's up with you two?" The Dane turned to his newest teammate with a concerned look on his face.

"He...He's my...well...we aren't...I don't know for sure...see..."

Emil stuttered and struggled, not wanting to say aloud that Lukas was his brother because a part of him still tried to believe that wasn't true, for whatever pointless reason it may have.

To resist something he'd long since accepted as reality, for no reason other than his pathetic pride.

Only to defend his useless stubbornness.

"So he's your...what?" Mathias demanded.

Emil sighed as Tino studied his face, looking into those eyes he'd seen before, resting in a different face.

"You're his younger brother, aren't you?" The Finn asked confidently.

Emil gulped, "W-Well, sorta, I mean, our Mom was...that is our Dad...I mean, he's from Norway, and I'm..."

"You don't change, do you?"

They all looked up to see Lukas leaning on the railing at the top of the ladder, piercingly cold eyes narrowed in Emil's direction. He walked to the ladder and slid down the side rails. His landing was light as a feather, and he made less noise than a ghost as he walked. He gave Emil a wide berth as he shrugged a black jacket on, pulling it tighter around his lithe frame than perhaps he usually would. As if the heavy canvas would defend him from something.

"Come on; I'll show you how to get around, so I don't have to _walk_ you everywhere."

Emil winced at the emphasis behind the word. 

He'd hated how Lukas always walked him home from school, but after Lukas had gone, he'd felt as though the space next to him had been empty every trek back every day. Still, when the older had exited the room, Emil had scurried out behind him.

The other three Nordic's stared after them in confusion, glancing at each other as if searching for an answer to the bizarre situation. 

Finally, Tino shrugged. "Well, I'm sure they'll work it out!" He said in a sing-song voice.

Mathias heaved a sigh. "You sure are more optimistic than me, Fin, and that's saying something."

"Mm," Sweden added this noise of approval, and so they returned to their usual activities.

_**With Lukas and Emil.** _

Lukas kept every answer short and to the point.

He asked about their old guardian, to which Emil replied that she was doing well. Emil had asked Lukas about why he stayed at the school, and Lukas's reply had been frighteningly simple.

"Why should I have gone back?"

They passed many other students in the halls; they came across Greece, his red cargo type jacket on his shoulders, and a cat resting on his plain black tee shirt. Hercules was fast asleep in the middle of the grassy courtyard, and Sadik was standing above him, shaking up a can of whipped cream with an evil smirk on his stubble framed face.

They'd been moving through a hallway that had an entrance to the underground part of the academy in it when they heard.

"HELP ME!" Italy came whipping past.

"Not again..." Lukas sighed as Emil looked after Italy's retreating back in confusion.

"My god, what's with that guy?" He asked.

"STAY OUT OF OUR BASE!" Switzerland came flying by, chasing after the terrified Italian, waving his rifle in the air.

As the tail of his black and red jacket disappeared around the corner, Emil asked incredulously.

"Did he have a gun!? What is this place!?"

Lukas glanced back at Emil, a bored expression on his face.

"Feli always goes into Vash's base instead of his own because they're close together, and Feli's easily mixes things up. As for Vash, he's territorial, and the school's top sniper and all-around weapon's expert. You want anything gun-related fixed, go to him. I really don't understand how he won the school's peace and negotiation award. Once I even heard him threaten to beat Kiku with his peace prize. He's confusing. Feli's confusing. Everyone here is confusing."

That was the most extended answer Emil had gotten out of his brother so far.

Finally, they ended the tour in the back tower of the school's upper levels.

The Hetalia Academy had an entire secret facility constructed below ground. Yet, aboveground, it was simply known as a prestigious and very closed off private school with a large building constructed of brick and stone.

The building had four immense towers at each corner, several rooms of thickness leading into the central courtyard, and then sprawling outer buildings with equal grandeur and smaller courtyards.

Lukas stopped them in a hall lit by open arcs into the courtyard, Hercules had pursued Turkey out of the area in a fury, so they were alone.

"That's it, I hope you were paying attention. If not, you can ask the others for directions. Don't ask Den, though, he's hopeless. I'm going back to the library, I've got work to do."

Lukas said, turning to leave with his back to Emil.

"W-Wait!"

Lukas didn't take a second step but didn't glance over his shoulder either.

"I...I...Lukas, I'm..." Emil yet again found himself at a loss for what to say.

"Have you got anything to say?"

Emil stood, humiliated by the silence when he couldn't bring any words to his lips.

Lukas let out a sound that sounded something like a disappointed chuckle, shoving his hands into his jacket pockets.

"You never thought of me as your brother, did you?"

More silence, because it was a question Emil had warred with himself long before it had ever been verbally posed. 

Lukas still hadn't turned around. 

"Before Mom died, you called me 'big brother,' Dad was fine, and everything was perfect...but you didn't. You only called me that because Mom smiled every time you did. After she passed you did it out of habit, maybe you did it out of respect to her or something, I don't know."

A weak shrug.

"Then you got older, and I got older, and we ran away. And you stopped it. I didn't think I'd miss it as much as I did. Of course, I didn't expect you to call me that forever, but when you started denying the fact that we were even related, it hurt. It hurt worse than anything else that's ever happened to me. I don't think you ever cared to understand why. If you did, well...that actually makes it worse. "

A pang struck Emil's heart. He'd viewed Lukas for so long like a monolith. Cold, unfeeling, and always towering above him. A figure that had always supported him, and had been distanced from him at the same time. Perhaps Emil lashing out, pushing away, was how he'd searched to find freedom from that shadow. 

Without ever bothering to consider that shadow had feelings, too. 

Chalk that up to youthful, selfish ignorance.

Lukas's voice filled the corridor again.

"Well, now I believe you. You hate it, don't you? I never showed you because I felt like it would be rubbing it in your face. But I have the papers. We have the same blood running through our veins. We're not even half-siblings, though I'm sure you'd have preferred that. We share a mother and a father, there's no way around it."

This fact, being stated without any dispute or any arguments being brought up in its wake, was like a slap to the face.

_Brothers._

The word burned in Emil's brain. And wasn't that sad? That he was finally accepting it at this moment far after all the damage he'd done. 

"But maybe you're right. No, I think you've always been right"

Lukas glanced over his shoulder at his younger sibling, eyes weighted, yet face impassive.

"Maybe we aren't brothers." Lukas started walking off again, for two long seconds, Emil stood and did nothing, just watched the older's back slowly start to shrink away.

Emil dove forward and seized his arm, pulling him around to face him, and did what was probably the last thing Lukas expected. watching tears drop towards the black tile floor.

He threw his arms around him in a bone-crushing hug, and let his tears seep into Lukas's shoulder.

Lukas was clearly caught off guard, arms sticking out awkwardly, not returning the embrace.

Emil didn't pay it any mind. Words were bubbling up and over, words he'd been concealing ever since the day Lukas disappeared.

"I'm sorry! I'm not just saying it! I've wanted to say that for years now but when I saw you, I just, I...you...I'd thought you were gone! I thought I'd never see you again! Yet there you were, just sitting reading a book! I couldn't believe it! And you're right...I was...I shouldn't have treated you that way I was just...just nothing! It doesn't matter anymore! So I'm sorry, ok? I'm sorry, big brother, I'm sorry."  
  


The words spilled out of Emil's mouth in a panic; he'd been thinking of what he could say to his brother since the night Lukas had disappeared.

But when he'd found Lukas sitting right in front of him, the exact same impassive eyes and slightly curious expression as always on his face, nothing would come out. He'd been truly speechless.

Emil released Lukas and looked up into those nearly identical eyes.

Lukas looked at him with that same emotionless expression.

He let out a sigh, his curl bobbing, and the cross-shaped clip in his hair slipping along with his bangs to cover the corner of his eye.

"Alright."

Emil blinked at the straightforward answer to his scattered apologizing.

"A-Alright?"

"You called me your brother..." 

A small satisfied expression seemed to spread upon Norway's face, and the ice was melting. "That's all I ever wanted to hear."

Emil stared, eyes wide and arms still raised slightly in the gestures he'd been making. 

Then he surged forward, and they were embracing again, and Emil was sobbing little sniffles and gasps. Lukas was rubbing his back in a way he hadn't since they were children.

After a few seconds, they separated, and Lukas gave him a rare smile, eyes alight.

"Welcome...brother."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> That's all for now, please drop a comment down below, they help Emil stop crying, and please leave kudos if you haven't been here before! Thanks for reading!


	6. Good Work

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Carrying on, now we're getting into the thick of things with what the academy really does! So please enjoy~

_**Six months later** _

"Icy, do you hear me?"

"I read you, Den."

"Sve, you on here?" 

"Mm."

"Good, say, Nor, you think we got enough time after this job to grab something to eat on the way home?"

"You're annoying, Den."

"Can you all please focus?"

It was Tino's voice that ended the impending argument, the Nordic's were currently working to collect a priceless stolen necklace from inside a sleek scraper in the downtown area called 'Morgan Enterprise.'

"Finny, did you do any background on this 'Morgan' person?" Lukas questioned as he moved around the perimeter of the building, crouched low to help conceal his position from the security camera he was directly underneath, but out of sight.

"Sure did."

Tino was in their black van, like all the other teams in the academy, they got a van to use as a means of mobile base and transport. The back was outfitted with computers, gadgets and communications, and several different video screens on which Tino was watching their progress through the security cam's eyes. He'd tapped into their system about a week ago and had been studying their security movements to ensure they would form a solid infiltration plan.

"I found some information from a few years ago that he was involved in kidnapping, but for some reason, he just never got charged. Several hushed up cases of theft, breaking and entering, and I've got a bit on his personality as well. He always makes his underlings do his dirty work, but it seemed that he's not afraid to bloody his own hands when necessary. He's a multi-millionaire from that. He's willing to do anything to get what he wants, that's what I've been able to gather. I've been looking into his info ever since the first confrontation with him, so keep your guard up, and if you hear the order to retreat, don't be all macho and refuse, everyone clear?"

"Yes." 

"Yeah."

"Sure thing!"

"Ok." Emil was currently working his way through the sewage system beneath the building.

"Gross..." He complained as he slogged through the knee-deep, foul-smelling waters.

"Hang on, Ice." Berwald offered one of his rare words of encouragement.

"I'm in position. I've worked my way into an air vent directly above the necklace, that laser detector deactivator thingie you came up with is great, Finny." Denmark commented over the line.

Emil sighed as he pulled one foot out of the water slightly.

_Good thing I wore boots or my uniform would be a nightmare to wash._

Iceland thought to himself as he continued forward.

"Why am I down here again?" He asked Finland.

The shorter teen tapped at his keyboard to toggle his camera view.

"Cause you're the backup if Den needs any help," Finland repeated.

"Den, do me a favor, need some help, so I don't feel like this was a complete waste." Iceland joked.

"Actually, pal, I might have to take you up on that, you seeing this Fin?"

Tino's face was illuminated by a sudden light as the doors to the van opened, it was the middle of the night, but there were still street lamps.

Thankfully, it was Berwald, returning from setting the minor explosive they'd use if it was necessary to cover their escape.

Finland glanced back to the screen.

"Oh, that's not good..." He mumbled as he studied the screen.

Four hulking guards had entered the room, and Den just barely managed to pull the grate he'd removed back into the place before they spotted him.

"You guys? I don't have any alternates for this, those guys are way too big for you to take. I think we need to make a tactical withdraw and re-strategize." Tino said, eyes wandering over the screen as his mind spun through their backup plans, none coming up that would take out the sudden shift in the guard cycle.

"No way. Icy, listen up, I need to you slip in and make a distraction, something to draw at least two of these big boys out. Got me?" Denmark asked into his earpiece.

Iceland sighed as Finland told him not to listen to him.

"Denmark, you better not be planning something stupid." He said as he began to shimmy up the large pipe Tino had located to make his entry.

"It's Den, of course it's something stupid." Norway pointed out blankly.

"Yeah, yeah." Iceland murmured as he slipped up into the building, finding himself in an empty supply closet.

"Fin? Just gimme directions to get outside his position." Iceland demanded.

Finland sighed and glanced over at Sweden, who'd sat down next to him.

The taller teen shrugged.

Tino groaned, the noise heard through the mic's, then spoke.

"Alright, head out of that closet and move across the hall, the first doorway, watch for guards. I'll loop the cameras in five-second intervals, so we don't gather suspicion; move fast."

Iceland slipped from the closet and followed Finland's whispered directions in his earpiece until at last.

"Hold it."

The teen froze and quickly pressed himself up against the wall near a corner.

"There's one guard outside the door, you think you can take him?"

Emil glanced cautiously around the corner and scrutinized the single guard.

"He's got a pistol, but I can get to him and knock him out before he can even reach it." The boy murmured this into his com.

"You gonna go stealth or Den?" Finland asked.

"Hey! You guys all treat me like I'm stupid! Do I always do that when we're on missions? I'm not totally annoying!" Denmark hissed from his end of the line.

"Yes. You're always annoying, Den."

It can be figured who said that, and the Dane quieted once more.

Iceland felt his lips quirk up as he braced his feet.

"Den." He replied as he charged around the corner.

The man didn't even have time to shout or make any sort of noise before the sixteen-year-old was upon him. A heavy-hitting roundhouse kick and a few less planned jabs later, the guard was slammed into the door.

Iceland stepped back and took a few deep breaths as he turned his back on the man.

"Was that enough of a distraction?" He asked Denmark, who peered through the grate of the air vent. Lines of shadows cut across his face from the room below, and he watched as the guards began to talk.

"I can't make out what they said, but three of them are leaving the room to investigate the sound."

"Oh..." Iceland turned slowly to see three men exiting a door behind him.

All of them locked eyes with him and had priceless looks of 'what the hell is a kid doing in here?' on their faces.

"Thanks for the warning, jerk!" Iceland screamed into his earpiece as he sprinted down the hallway, his wet boots screeching against the tiles as he went skidding around a corner, avoiding a single shot from one of the men's handguns embedding itself into the wall.

"Ice, you need help?" Norway's voice portrayed calm, but in a distinct undertone, he was worried about his brother.

"Nope! I'm good! Besides..."

Lukas turned, a supremely disappointed frown on his darkened face as his little brother came flying out the door right next to him.

"I've got you to help me!" Emil finished.

"Idiot." Norway grumbled.

"Hey, there's two of them!" One of the guards yelled.

"Sorry about my brother, sirs." Norway stood up and threw on arm around his brother's shoulders.

"I'm going to tell our parents he's doing that stupid mission impossible stuff he's obsessed with again, he's a little bit crazy if you know what I mean."

Lukas had a cheery smile on his face as he circled one ear with his finger.

_How he can change his personality in a snap is beyond me..._

Iceland thought as he elbowed Lukas in the ribs to get him off his shoulder.

"Than why were you out here?" The second man asked, tucking his gun into his belt as the others did the same.

The second the guns were secured, all the man felt was Norway's boot in his face.

"Oof!" He stumbled backward, flailing for his gun as Lukas landed and spun, punching another charging hired hand in the face, knocking him to the ground.

Emil engaged the final attacker and quickly dispatched him while Norway grabbed the front of his opponent's shirt.

"I think he's a little crazy too," Emil commented to the man as Lukas cocked his fist and slammed it into the man's face, knocking him unconscious.

The two students of the Hetalia Academy had dragged their out of commission sparring partners behind a bush and were just heading back to Norway's post when the alarms inside the building started ringing.

"Oh, great." Lukas groaned.

"Flashing red lights...wow, just wow." Emil sighed as said lights illuminated their faces, bouncing from their identical eyes, and painting the world a shade of crimson.

Their tall blonde ally came barreling out the door a second later.

"Run! Run run run!" He yelled as he took off towards the street, the tails of the long black coat he wore on missions fluttering behind him, clutching the necklace tightly in one fist.

"That is a priceless piece of jewelry, and you're just holding it with your bare hands!? We gave you a bag!" Emil demanded.

"No time! And I'm wearing gloves, aren't I?" The Dane replied cheekily, Lukas remained silent as they made it out the gates of the large enterprise building.

Their van came hurtling around the corner in a scream of rubber on the road.

It did a 180 turn and thudded back down on all four wheels as the back doors were thrown open. "Get in!"

Tino stood ready to pull the doors shut as his three sprinting teammates dove into the back. 

"Hit it, Sve!" The techie of the team shouted, in the driver's cab.

Berwald stepped on the gas, clutching at the wheel. They were shooting off through the streets of the downtown area at speeds unreachable for their pursuers on foot. Their mission complete, they made for the cliffside home of their academy.

"Mathias, what is wrong with you!? Emil nearly got shot!" Lukas erupted at the Dane, angry for him putting his younger brother in harm'sway.

Mathias reclined back in his seat. The back of the van had several different stations, and the Danish teen manned the video screens when they were driving along.

"But, he didn't." Denmark pointed out.

"And we got this!" He held out his gloved hand and unclenched his fist to reveal the gorgeous diamond necklace.

"As much as I hate to admit it, everything did work out." Emil sighed.

"You're the one who nearly got your head taken off!" Tino cried as he adjusted the flat, slightly puffy, black hat he took to wearing during missions.

Lukas sighed and dropped into his seat, taking up half of the weapons desk to the left of the van, his brother beside him, with Tino and Mathias sitting on the opposite wall.

"Fine, just don't pull a stunt like that again." The Norwegian ordered sternly, Tino backing him up with a firm nod.

"That's like telling him to stop breathing. Or being irritating." Emil grumbled.

"HEY!"

"Whatever, we got our mission complete! Soon enough, we'll be able to take on the big-time stuff against Morgan!"

Within the last few months, the school had been thwarting many of Morgan's attempts at theft, blackmail, and even cyber hacking to transfer money into their own accounts. Hetalia Academy had taken to the cause of one day exposing Morgan, pushing him down from his high horse. But that was very difficult, what with them not wanting to reveal themselves.

"Yeah, maybe I can convince the Headmaster to let me use some of my packaging explosives! Even if they scan all their packages, it'll still get in because it's undetectable!" Tino exclaimed, hopefully, a sparkle in his eyes.

"No offense, but you seriously have a problem when it comes to blowing up stuff. Second, that will never work, and you know it." Mathias said.

The group chatted about this and that, mostly Finland's explosion addiction, as Berwald drove them up the winding path to the school, tower's shading the hillside with the backdrop of the moon, looking close enough to jump to.

Sweden pulled around back and opened one of the rear garage doors, moving inside and spiraling down the tightly wound bridge for the vehicles of the many students to reach the underground parking.

Sweden pulled into their assigned spot, and all of them got out.

Denmark swung the necklace cockily from his finger.

"Stop that!" Tino ordered, seizing the diamonds.

"Say, Berwald, you mind going to give this to Headmaster Rome and giving him a report? I know for a fact that this one would be too longwinded about his 'amazing' improvising." The Finn suggested as he handed the item in question over to the taller teen.

"Hey!"

Mathias put both hands on his hips and gave Tino a sour look.

"I got the job done, didn't I? If we'd done what you said and pulled back, we'd either be sitting in the van talking about new plans or coming back here empty handed!"

"Yeah, ok...fine, I'll give you this one, just please don't pull these things so often!" Tino said, his usual smile returning.

"Well, I'm going to take a shower." Emil said flatly.

"You smell like a septic tank." Mathias teased.

"I do not want to talk about it." The youngest of the group hissed as he turned and left through one of the sliding doors in the gray concrete lot.

All of them moved to follow him, talking and joking after another job well done.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> That's all for now! Please drop a comment down below, they help Mathias get the recognition he deserves (???) and please leave kudos if you haven't been here before! Thanks for reading!


	7. Gathering Together

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Carrying on into the heart of the story! Please enjoy~

**_The next day in the Headmaster's office_ **

The Nordic 5 entered through a pair of bright red painted double doors, moving into a room as colorful and eccentric as Rome's personality.

The walls were the same coffee color as the ones in the rest of the school, he had four large floor to ceiling bookcases stuffed with books, pictures, and crammed in awards. Plaques and trophies dotted the smaller shelving on the wall. The desk was of a polished black wood, with a large, very high backed swivel chair behind it.

Sitting in that chair, of course, was Rome, bright scarlet suit and all.

"There you five are! Come in, I need to have a word with you!"

The five of them entered, and Tino was the first to speak, his voice shaking with nerves.

"W-We aren't i-in trouble, are we, sir?"

"If we are, I blame Mathias." The brothers of the group said in unison.

"HEY!" Denmark yelled at them.

Rome laughed, his voice smooth and rich.

"Of course not! Actually, I called you here to praise you!"

"Praise, sir?" Lukas asked skeptically.

"Well...sorta." Rome shrugged.

"You aren't in trouble though, don't worry. I have a new mission for you. Morgan has managed to hack into some of our files."

"But how!?" Tino exclaimed, before quickly schooling himself down. 

"S-Sorry, sir. But those files are high encrypted and how did he know where to look?"

Rome sighed and folded his hands on his desk. "See, boys, Rooke Morgan and I have a bit of a history together. He and I were very competitive in this world you five now live in. We were students at what used to be Hetalia Academy, where your Professor Germania learned the trade as well. The Ancient Academy, as it was once called. Morgan and I were rivals in everything, including our last contest. As you can see..."

He gestured the awards decorating his walls, and his diploma as well.

"Mostly, I managed to beat him. Our last race, the battle to become Headmaster of this school, was more of the same. It was a fierce competition, of strength, skill, and mind. Though I did not, he is convinced the reason I narrowly won is because I cheated. I didn't cheat in the slightest, I was just a little bit quicker. He seems a bit sour about it too, he was always a sore loser. Anyway, as I said, he used to be a student here, now this was decades ago, before we picked up and moved operations here from across the country."

Rome fiddled with a pencil on his desk as he spoke, then ran a hand through his messy brown locks.

"We caught him barely ten minutes have his techies gained entry, um, no offense, Tino."

"None taken, sir," Tino replied. He was well used to the nickname applied to those of his job title.

"Anyway, we booted him out, and he still has no clue we're here, we changed our name to Hetalia Academy when we arrived here, and we're far from public, so he still doesn't know about this being our base."

"Good thing, or he would probably had swarmed us," Emil commented.

"True," Rome said, pointing at the Icelandic teen.

"Now, to a far more serious matter, he managed to seize something, only one document, really. But it could have damaging effects."The once-great field operative tapped at the keyboard of his computer, and the flat screen mounted above him flared to life. At once, the five students focused on it.

Out of all the things they expected to see, a picture of a sixteen year old Yao Wang was not one of them.

"Um...Yao?" Lukas asked in confusion.

"Of course we have files on our students, it's a necessary thing. But out of all the files, he ended up downloading this one."

"Ok, so he's got a few pictures you took of Yao on his first week here, and his birthday or something, that's bad because...?"

Mathias asked in a dreary tone.

Rome gave him a sharp look, causing Mathias to straighten up with apologetic look on his face for being so disrespectful, and frowned.

"Because Yao's family is also listed. Both his parents are deceased. You all know his younger brother Kiku, a member of the Axis. But his other siblings do not attend here and live on their own in the suburbs of the city. Mei, Yong Soo, Hyung Soo, and..."

Rome was cut off when Emil exclaimed in panic.

"Li! They're after them!?" He asked worriedly.

Rome shook his head, "As far as we know, no. But unfortunately, they could strike at any moment. I've no choice but to enroll them all here. It's my fault that Yao's family is in danger. He's a student here, three years he's been serving, learning, and growing here. Which makes him my responsibility. If his family is in danger, I'll do everything in my power to protect them."

"So what do you need us for, sir?" Tino asked innocently.

"Go get Yao and Kiku, do not tell them that a file on Yao has been leaked, only tell them that they need to come with you to collect some new students. Once they realize where they're heading, you can tell them the whole story, got it? It's just to preserve the atmosphere of the academy. If Yao or Kiku were to tell anyone about the leak, it could shake the main student body. The thought that far-away family members could be in danger is certainly a sickening one."

"Yes, sir."

The entire team echoed each other in a varying display of pitches and tones.

"Alright, you move in late this afternoon, try to pick up the youngest on his walk home from school, the twins from their home, and the girl on her way back from the store," Rome ordered.

"Yes, sir." The repeated as they all said their goodbyes and left the room.

As their boots met the tile floors of the hallway, Lukas began sectioning their tasks and making his commands. "Ok, Tino, find Yao, Mathias, go get Kiku, Berwald, Emil, and I will go prep the van for the extra passengers."

"Right."

**_In the sparring gym._ **

The entire floor of the gym was covered with black mats. The walls were painted red, and the school symbol, wings spread wide, flew above the center of the main sparring area, painted against the red backdrop. The mats on the floor were all stuffed with spongey material to prevent severe injuries upon landing.

"HI-YA!"

Something one Alfred Jones was about to be very grateful for, as he collided with the floor after being hurled several feet through the air.

"Dang it, dude! How are you so good!?" Alfred demanded, red bomber jacket twisted all about and a furious expression on his face, leaping up after being tossed to the floor by his teammate Yao for the third team since Tino had been watching.

"I have been training martial arts since I was three. It was the one thing I made sure all of my siblings kept up even after our parents died." Yao said, settling his ponytail back onto his shoulder, putting a hand on his hip, and tilting his head at his panting friend.

"I tell you you eat to many of the burger but you never listen." The brunette quipped as Alfred leaned on his knees, bent over double.

"Well...I quit for the day. I'll try again next week." Alfred made to leave.

"You should stretch! You'll pull something if you don't!" Yao called after him.

"All I need now is a soda, talk to you later!"

And thus, the American vanished out the door.

Yao sighed, smacking his forehead gently in frustration and shaking his head at his friend, he wore the same uniform as usual, red, way long sleeves, black trimming and a black insignia on the lapel. Black pants that billowed out slightly above the white leg wrappings and brown shoes.

As Yao reached down towards the floor, beginning to take his own advice and stretch after the workout, Tino approached him.

"Hiyaa, Yao!" He sang his signature greeting as he walked across the mats toward the senior student.

"Hm?"

Yao straightened up and pulled one arm across to stretch his shoulder.

"Oh..." The third-year shut his eyes and took a moment to search his brain for a name.

"You're...Tino, right? You're in the Nordic's, aren't you?" He finally recalled as he opened his eyes again. Though Yao wasn't the tallest individual, he had a good two or so inches on the younger student.

"Sure am, and I came to tell you that Headmaster paired you up with our team to do a pick up job!" Tino exclaimed.

Yao raised his eyebrows, amber eyes confused, a look of surprise taking over his face.

"Um...okay? I've never really gotten to know any of you, none of you are in my year, but if that's what Headmaster Rome said, than sure. When are we leaving and what do I need?"

"Nothing but what you usually take, and get this, Kiku's coming as well."

"Kiku?" Yao was now throughly confused.

"We never end up together." The older commented, then he shrugged.

"Alright, when should I meet you all?"

"By the exit lot at 4:30, Rome said to head out early."

"Fine. I'll see you then." Yao said, and thus Tino turned and left, but not before Alfred attempted a sneak attack, having walked around to the other door to jump Yao from behind.

The blonde Finn struggled to press back a snort of laughter as Yao reacted, judo throwing the flying American over his shoulder and slamming him face-first into the wall.

"...I'll get you some day...bro..." The teen moaned as he peeled off of the wall and slid to the mat covered floor.

"So immature," Yao said sarcastically as he stood over his teammate.

"Shut up and go tell it to your stupid Hello Kitty collection." Alfred shot back as he stumbled to his feet.

Tino was about halfway down the hall from the sparring gym doors when Alfred burst out, cackling madly as the doors bashed off the walls, open wide. Yao came tearing out of the door behind him.

"TAKE THAT BACK!"

"NEVEEEEEEEER!"

The two of them whipped past so fast that Tino's hat was ripped from his head. The Finnish teen knelt down to retrieve it as he thought to himself.

_Mental note, never insult Hello Kitty in front of Yao._

_In the Hetalia Academy library._

Mathias wove in between the bookcases of the sprawling library. He'd gone by the Axis base, but only the italian of the group of three had been home.

After a long, loud, heavily accented conversation and a lot of hand gestures, Feliciano had told Mathias that Kiku should be in the library. This appeared to be good information, as, sure enough, the Dane turned around another towering section of books and spotted the one he was looking for.

Kiku seemed to be neat, tidy, and organized with everything that _didn't_ involve paper. 

Room? Spotless. 

The Axis's sleek black, speed oriented car? Not a scratch or a concealed weapon out of place. 

But here at a lone study table in the library, he was hopeless. The Japanese boy was surrounded by a strewn mess of books and half empty folders, his pencil box appeared to have spilled on the floor, and to top it all off, he'd lost his glasses.

"I cannot read without my glasses! I need to study!"

Kiku seemed to be talking to himself in a hissed mutter as he sifted through the chaotic mess, attempting to find the missing lenses.

Mathias, from the opposite side of the table, could see the earpiece of said spectacles sticking out from under a few wayward sheets of scribbled upon paper.

"Looking for these?" Mathias asked as he walked forward, Kiku's head shot up and a red tinge appeared on his cheeks from being caught in such a disorganized position.

"Here." Mathias retrieved the glasses from under the papers on the opposite side of the desk and handed them to Kiku.

"Ah! Thank you." Kiku took the glasses and slipped them on, relieved when the words in his books once again came back into focus.

"I don't get why you wear glasses all the time if you only need them to read, though?" Mathias asked out of curiosity.

Kiku glanced up at him from a paper he'd been scanning through, his wide brown orbs now magnified slightly through the lenses.

"Well, since my job on the Axis is tech support from our car, I need them in order to properly see the codes and lettering on my computer screens, and I always wear them because I never want something to happen where I need them and have them in a case in my bag, instead of already on. It doesn't hurt to have them when I'm not studying, though, because my visions never been the best. They are special lenses Headmaster ordered for me so they wouldn't blur when I'm not focusing on words." The black haired teen explained as Mathias leaned on the desk, thinking about it.

"Yeah...I guess that makes sense. So, I need to talk to you about something."

Kiku tilted his head to one side slightly, adopting a interested expression. While they weren't enemies, the Nordic 5 and the Axis had never exactly been buddies either.

"I was surprised too, not that I don't like you or anything." Mathias corrected himself quickly before launching into his planned ahead explanation.

"Ol'Rome wants us to take you and your bro with us, and the seven of us are doing a pick up for some new students."

Kiku's brow furrowed slightly, "Onii-san as well? Does this have something to do with us in particular?"

Mathias, naturally, went into terrible lying mode. "W-Well h-h-how am I s-supposed t-to know that? C-C'mon, K-Kiku! I don't k-know what's r-r-running around in the H-Headmasters head! S-So meet us by the lot exit at 4:30, k-kay?"

Kiku raised both eyebrows at him in a skeptical expression, but he figured he would speak to Yao about it later to see if he knew anything.

"Very well, I will see you then."

"Great!" Mathias exclaimed, thinking he'd dodged a bullet there.

"See you then!"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> That's all for now, we're going to be getting into some more super-spy stuff after this, so stick around to see it! Please drop a comment down below, they help Alfred find a soda, and please leave kudos if you haven't been here before! Thanks for reading!


	8. Old Friends

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "Alright, so you're like, vigilantes?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Carrying on with the intervention of the academy to save the Wangs!   
> Please enjoy~

**_4:30, by the lot exit._ **

Yao was already there when Kiku arrived, and the Nordic's van pulled around less than a minute later. Yao's team had a car pretty much identical to this van. Kiku's team, however, being only three members in size, had a smaller car more adapted for speed jobs, since that was what a compact team such as them was suitable for.

"Yo!" Mathias popped the back doors.

"Let's move out!" He shouted out as Berwald stuck his head out the driver's side window, and Lukas opened the other back door.

Kiku and Yao boarded the vehicle, and off they went, up the spiral exit ramp, out the garage doors, and into the late afternoon of the city.

Emil zipped up his jacket, it was late autumn, and the temperature was dropping by the day.

"So, what's the plan?" Yao asked as he and Kiku sat in some of the seats that were backed with the drivers and passengers seats, separated by a wall.

"Emil's very close in age to the youngest we're after, so he's gonna pick him up." Tino began, swiveling from his computer's to face the group.

"Kiku will be going for the one on her walk home from the store. The rest of us are going after the final two that will be at their home."

Kiku shot a sideways glance at Yao.

"Four, all in the same home? Are they all siblings?" He asked worriedly.

"Correct," Tino replied.

"Do you have any descriptions?" Yao asked.

Lukas played it off calmly. "Ones a girl, and then a set of twins."

"Then a teen close to Emil's age! Ok, what's going on that you're not telling us?" Yao demanded, standing up, only for the van to hit a rut and cause him to drop back into his seat again after banging his head on the ceiling.

Mathias cackled madly at the older student as he rubbed his head.

"Finally!" Mathias sighed after his laughter subsided as the other Nordic's in the back all looked relieved.

"Headmaster Rome said not to say anything until you guys asked us straight up." The Dane explained to the Asian brothers.

"Well, explain," Kiku ordered as he pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose.

All of them took turned talking and filling in gaps, and by the time they were finished, Kiku was studying his brother worriedly, and Yao looked ready to rip someone's head off. 

Which, the Nordic's reminded themselves, may not be entirely impossible for him.

"So. My student information was leaked? To Morgan!?" Yao's fury built as he completed the sentence, and it was only his little brother's hand on his shoulder, keeping him from jumping from his seat again.

"Onii-san, please calm down," Kiku said. Despite reeling from the news a bit himself, he was able to keep his emotions under wraps.

"Not all of it, man, just one page of it! He only got a few pictures, your birthday, and, the bad part, your relations." Mathias exclaimed

"Yeah, then he was booted out of the system, he spent less than ten minutes inside! He didn't get anything else!"

"So we're going after the rest of my family? My little brothers and sister?" Yao demanded.

"Well...yes. We're actually sending Emil after Li because the two of them were like, besties in high school." Mathias said.

"We were in a similar situation and just ended up being in the same place a lot, so we became friends that way." Emil quietly explained the reasoning.

Yao sighed and leaned back into his seat, head dropping back to stare up at the metal roof of the van.

"Are you mad at the Headmaster?" Tino asked timidly.

Yao seemed to consider this before he slowly shook his head.

"I understand that he has to have files on us. When they took my pictures during my first week, three years ago, I was told they'd be used in my student file, so it wasn't like it was a secret. Honestly, I'm glad that out of all the sensitive info he could have seized, our weapons, a student list, our location, our mission schedule, all he ended up with was some useless info about me."

"Headmaster Rome is worried that Morgan might go after your siblings and use them as hostages to try and get us to come into the open, but as far as we know, he doesn't think we know he got anything."

"Emil, here's your stop." Berwald's low voice called back through the small window of the divider wall.

"Ok," Emil said.

"Remember, get Li to the pavilion, if we don't arrive there within the allotted time, come to us," Tino warned.

"Ok." Emil made to get out of the car when he heard Lukas speak to him for the first time the entire ride.

"Be careful." He warned.

Emil smiled slightly, to think his brother still bothered to tell him that before every single mission.

"You too." He replied as he jumped from the back of the van, his boots hitting the pavement. He could tell Lukas had a small smile on his face as he pulled the doors shut behind the Icelandic teen and the van trundled off.

Emil looked around, marveling at the sense of deja-vu for a moment. He'd been a very different kid the last time he'd walked down these familiar streets. Emil took a moment to reminisce before turning onto the route he and Li would take whenever they choose to walk to the latter's family household.

Emil had to admit; he felt a buzz of excitement when he spotted his old friend moving along, long sleeves whipping about as he went weaving in between the few people on the sidewalk.

He had a faraway look on his face, his mind was clearly miles away.

Emil unzipped his jacket, exposing his red vest, red ribbon tie, and black undershirt. He was heating up quickly in the direct sun on the otherwise chilly day.

Deciding he may as well have a bit of fun with this, Emil dodged through a shortcut to get ahead of Li, then stopped and leaned on the corner of the deserted sidewalk and waited.

Less than a minute later, Li turned the corner, he didn't even acknowledge the other and almost went straight past Emil when the latter boy spoke.

"Hey." He greeted.

"Hi," Li said without thinking, glancing over to the figure that had only just registered in his head.

Then he saw Emil's face. 

Emil couldn't help but smirk at the look of pure shock that spread over Li's face.

"E-Emil?" He asked, astonished as his eyes darted up and down, taking in his old friend's school uniform, then up and down the deserted street to check if this was some sort of cruel joke.

"Great to see you, Li," Emil said as he pushed off of the corner.

"B-But...y-y-you, were gone!" Li exclaimed in shock.

"Who says that being gone mean's I can't come back?" Emil countered.

Li seized his friend by the shoulders and shook him. "What is wrong with you!? Where have you, like, been, mate!?"

"Where you're heading, c'mon, I'll tell you about it."

After being pulled into a headlock by Li and shouted at for a moment more, the two of them set off for the park, where they were going to meet up with the other Nordic's.

Without mentioning Yao or Kiku, Emil explained that Li and his family were in danger.

"So this Morgan dude is, like, after us?" Li asked, confused.

"Yeah, he and our organization have been butting heads each other all over the place. I mean, the Axis hacked one of his lesser defended branches computers to seize a few files. The Allies managed to break into another one of his smaller facilities a few hours away to destroy some incriminating information, but they were forced out by the security officers. As for my team, the Nordic 5, though most people just call us the Nordic's, just yesterday we snatched a priceless diamond necklace he..."

"Hold up, hacked? Break-in? And you what?" Li stopped walking, and Emil turned to him, surprised.

"I what?" Emil asked, tilting his head and blinking to show his confusion with his hands in his jacket pockets.

"So you're a thief!" Li exclaimed in shock.

"No, you've got it wrong!" Emil said hurriedly, putting up his hands in a calming gesture.

"You broke into this dudes place and, like, stole jewelry!" Li pointed out, backing away slightly.

"Not exactly," Emil said.

"So, you _kinda_ stole a necklace?" Li was seriously considering just running.

"Please, just listen," Emil begged, Li stopped backpedaling, giving his old friend the chance to explain himself.

"Morgan's a cheat and a thief. You can see for yourself later; we reclaimed the necklace."

Emil waved his finger to accent the next statement.

_"Which he was planning on selling in the black market for a profit."_

Emil dropped his arm back down. "Than we returned it to the museum Morgan's men stole it from the next day. The Allies were breaking in to incinerate information that Morgan was using to blackmail..."

Emil snapped his fingers with his eyes closed, trying to recall the name.

"I don't remember, but he was in the government. Morgan was blackmailing him, so he would turn a blind eye to some of his less than legal operations. The Axis hacked in to seize files on Morgan's ranks, which we need to continue combatting Morgan in all fields. We may have a few methods that are...frowned upon...but we've got a cause, we've got the training, and that's reason enough to fight, at least for me."

"Alright, so you're like, vigilantes?" Li asked, trying to piece this together.

"Pretty much, I never thought about it that way, though," Emil admitted.

The two of them walked along in silence for a while until they finally arrived at the pavilion, settling down in the shade at one of the picnic tables.

"Something else great happened too," Iceland spoke at last.

Li scanned his face, interested.

"I found Lukas again," Emil stated.

"Your...your brother!?" Li asked, shocked.

Emil nodded, "He was taken to the organization about two and a half years ago, I was taken six months ago, and he and I are even on the same team. We live in the same base and we get to work and train together all the time. It was...really a relief to see him; he's doing well."

Li grinned, happy for his friend's good fortune.

"That's brilliant, mate!" He cried.

Emil gave his friend a sideway's half-smile.

"There's something even more brilliant, now your of age to join us."

Li blinked, staring at Emil liked he'd just suggested to two of them go jump off of a cliff.

"Whoa whoa, whoa...you expect _me_ to come with _you_? And...do all that super-spy type stuff? As awesome as that sounds..."

Li trailed off for a moment as if considering this as an option, before shaking his head, shaggy black hair whipping.

"Yeah...no."

"Did I not just tell you all about the evil enterprise multimillionaire who might be trying to kill you?" Emil asked.

"But...I..."

"Li, the rest of your siblings are being brought in by the rest of my team, Lukas is over there too. Trust me; nothing gets past him. If you need any more incentive, I can give you plenty."

"Fine, let's hear it," Li ordered.

Emil gave him a totally straight look, not betraying anything through his expression.

"Yao's with them too."

Li's eyes went as wide as saucers, his mouth dropping open slightly.

"Yao?"

"Yup, Yao, a senior student of three years that could kick my butt without even rolling up those _way_ long sleeves," Emil said.

"O-Onii-san?" Li tried.

"Yes. Your brother. More specifically, your _brothers_."

"Kiku!? They're both ok!?" Li asked, joy slowly spreading across his face.

"They were brought to the academy just like Lukas was; their both fine," Emil assured.

That was when an explosion reached their ears, and a train of smoke appeared in the sky near Li's house.

Li gave him an incredulous look, eyes bugged with terror and confusion.

Emil shrugged sheepishly. "At least, I thought that they were."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> That's all for now! Hopefully, this is a good beginning to the chaos that is about to ensue! Please drop a comment down below, they help the explosion die down, and please kudos if you haven't been here before! Thanks for reading!


	9. Sky Afire

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "I hope not, but yes, we probably will."
> 
> "Fantastic,"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Moving on to the rescue operation, please enjoy!

**_On the sidewalk back from the grocery store_ **

Mei carried two large paper bags in each arm and was struggling not to trip on the hem of her pink dress.

_I thought I hemmed this thing up to be out of my way, but it looks like the glue melted...again._

The girl's shimmering brown hair fanned out behind her, she had a pink flower clip tucked above her ear and was really trying not the trip and fall.

As she walked, someone appeared around the corner, wearing a black Nehru collared jacket with a red symbol on the lapel. He seemed to be approaching her, fidgeting with his hands as if anxious.

_Look's like one of those stuck up rich kids from Hetalia Academy._

Mei thought to herself, not bothering to look the teen in the face as she made to pass him, for he'd stopped directly in front of her.

Of course, trying to change direction so quickly caused her to step on her dress.

She gave a panicked shriek, unable to regain her balance as one of her bags went flying into the air.

In a snap, the uniformed boy had caught the bag and seized the back of Mei's dress.

The girl found herself with her nose an inch from the pavement, still hugging three of her bags, being dangled by the back of her dress.

The Hetalia Academy student hauled Mei to her feet.

"U-Um, thanks...I."

"You're welcome, Mei."

"Yeah, well..."

Mei was then taken aback when she realized the black haired teen had said her name, and snapped her eyes up to stare into a pair of gentle brown eyes, though a pair of familiar glasses riding on the bridge of his nose.

"K-Kiku-nii?" She asked as all of her grocery bags fell to the ground, one by one.

"I am most happy to see you again, sister," Kiku said, as warmly as he could for a person like him.

Mei flung her arms around her brother's neck, tears in her eyes.

"Oh my god, you're ok! You've been missing for two years, where have you been!?" Mei wailed as she clung to him, burying her head in his shoulder.

Kiku returned her hug, feeling uncomfortable that his personal space was being invaded, but then, he'd been expecting it. He put a hand on the back of her head and couldn't help but be a fraction glad that soon enough, his entire family would be together again.

"Mei, I need you to listen very closely, you are in danger, my...friend, has already gotten Li, and another team is moving in to get the twins. My assignment was to get you to safety, and that is exactly what I plan to do. So if I tell you to take off running, you do, understand?"

The older of the two asked as they separated.

Mei nodded as she hitched up her skirt.

"I guess something pretty big happened to you, huh?" She asked.

"Indeed." Kiku agreed as he lead her towards the park, again grateful Mei was the type to act first and ask questions later. She trusted him enough to know if he showed up like this, especially after a two-year vanishing act, that it wasn't worth sweating the small stuff.

Kiku heard someone approaching behind them, but simply put a hand on Mei's shoulder, careful not to alarm her, when he heard a soft click, he shoved her forward.

"RUN!" He barked as he spun, facing one of Morgan's men that had emerged from an alleyway opening.

Mei gasped when she saw the gun in the man's hand and instantly took up a fighting stance.

"Do you remember what I just said? Run!" Kiku ordered.

Mei gulped and backed up slightly, still not wanting to leave her brother.

"I can fight too you know!" She exclaimed.

Kiku didn't bother to reply, _of course I knew that, but you're too nice and wouldn't take him down when you got the chance,_ as he launched himself forward at the man.

He wore the same thing all of Morgan's lackey's wore. Black jacket, bulky to conceal anything necessary. Black cargo pants with heavy pockets to serve the same purpose. They had large belts that could hide small handguns, and the back of his jacket had an artistic blue M on it, the symbol of the Morgan enterprises.

Kiku ducked as the man attempted to level the gun at him. He then rolled on his back and kicked up one leg, knocking the gun out of his hand.

The gun went skittering across the pavement, far out of the attacker's reach.

_Seems he wasn't trying to kill us, or he would have fired straight away...if they wanted Mei as the hostage, then what about the others? Would have bothered to leave all four alive?_

For now, he had to ignore his growing worries. Kiku rolled hard to one side as the man slammed down a booted foot in an attempt to step on him. The student quickly slipped onto his feet, soles of his shoes scraping against the sidewalk. His locked leg, hands planting to the pavement, striking the back of the man's knees, knocking him to the floor. At once, Kiku was upon him with a knee on his chest, and one hard strike to the face knocked him out cold. For good measure, Kiku landed a few more blows to him, having no issues going overboard after this man had threatened his little sister.

Mei stared in horror as Kiku stood and brushed off his hands from a few specks of blood from the broken nose he'd given the attacker.

"We're being followed, we need to move quickly," Japan ordered, eyes cold and calculating.

Mei kept on staring at him.

"You just slammed that guy to the floor and broke his nose."

Japan glanced down at the unconscious offender.

"That I did. Now let's move."

That was when an explosion caused the ground to tremble, and this time it was Kiku staring, as a train of smoke burst up into the sky.

**_With the Nordic's and Yao._ **

"So, you want me to break into my own house? I still know where the spare key is, why bother?" Yao asked as he and Lukas crouched in a large well-leaved tree near the second-story window the home.

"Just do it. We don't want the reunion on the front deck, Morgan might still be watching." Lukas said firmly.

Yao rolled his eyes, "I swear, I've been in the academy longer than any of you, and you're telling me what to do. Headmaster Rome was sure roundabout assigning this mission."

He gave another irritated huff, before turning his attention to the window.

"Fine."

"Glad we're in agreement." Lukas shimmied forward on the branch and carefully slit a thin strip of metal into the space between the sill and the window.

He narrowed his eyes as he felt around, sliding the metal back and forth under the sill until a soft click reached his ears, and he could feel it against the bar.

"Got it." He reported.

"You're lucky we never installed a security system, or this would have been way more complicated," Yao muttered.

Ignoring his upperclassman, Lukas's hand moved to his earpiece to tell Tino of their progress when he recalled they'd elected not to use them for this job.

"It should be simple enough, I mean, we'll just be in and out, we won't need them!" Mathias had exclaimed cockily when Tino had moved the link them up.

"We're going to regret not using the pieces, aren't we?" Yao asked, noticing how Lukas had slowly lowered his hand yet again after reaching up to the nonexistent earpiece.

Lukas let out a slow breath as he pushed the window open with a soft 'chunk.'

"I hope not, but yes, we probably will." The Norwegian mumbled.

"Fantastic," Yao exclaimed bitterly.

"I still say we use code names, just in case we're being followed," Lukas suggested firmly.

"Fine, _Norway_ , excuse me," Yao said with an exaggerated tone as he slipped past his fellow student and gripped the top of the window, slinging himself feet first inside.

He straightened up to see a room with flowers, posters, and pink wallpaper.

"This is Mei's room. C'mon, the twins will be downstairs playing with Li's video game console, probably."

Yao seemed to know his little brothers well, for when they opened the door, the sounds of blasting spaceships reached their ears.

"No fair! You hit me!"

"That's the point, stupid!"

"If I'm stupid, then you're ugly!"

"Moron, we're identical, you just called yourself ugly, ugly!"

"They are both very bright, just not when it comes to insults," Yao admitted.

Lukas shrugged as Yao led the way down the stairs.

They were looking at the back of a couch, and two heads of the same hair, with curls to the outer side of each. The one on the left wore a white tee shirt with a large black eagle logo on it. His twin wore a black tee-shirt with the exact same logo on it in white.

"I swear, they say they want to be told apart, but they love dressing the same to confuse people," Yao whispered before he walked in and clapped a hand onto each other their shoulders, shocking them into letting their remote controls clatter to the floor.

"Guess who?" He said happily.

The two of them let out high shrieks, having thought they were alone in the house. 

They leaped to their feet and spun around, one nearly tripping backward over the coffee table. 

"O-Onii-san!" One shouted.

"You're back!" The other cried.

Lukas was still struggled to put a name to each face. One was Yong Soo, and the other was Hyung Soo, that much he knew, but deciding which was which was proving to be a challenge.

Yao saw this and decided to help him out.

"Nor, this is Yong Soo." He said as he put a hand on the kid wearing the white tee shirt with the black logo's shoulder.

"And this is Hyung Soo." He put a hand on the other's shoulder.

"Aniki! I don't believe it, you're ok!" Yong Soo tossed himself onto Yao in a hug.

"We thought you were dead!" Hyung Soo barked as he seized his older brother in a hug after Yao had fended off Yong Soo.

Yao had a broad smile on his face, and his eyes sparkled with joy.

"Aii-yah! You went and got taller than me!" Yao yelled in mock anger, putting a hand from his forehead towards Yong Soo, who was now almost a foot in height taller than his brother.

"And I see you're still as identical as ever." Yao sighed, putting a hand to his forehead as his little brothers grinned at him.

"Yup! But you could still tell who was who! No fair!" The two of them exclaimed in unison.

Yao shook his head at them.

" _China_." Norway urged.

"Oh, right," Yao said, before turning back to the twins.

"You need to come with us; you're in danger," Yao told them where he'd been, the two-minute version a least, and at the end of this, the two of them were gaping.

"You're like some sort of super-spy, Aniki?" Yong Soo asked.

"No." Yao deadpanned.

"I'm the battle skills, and I also help to formulate strategies for my elite team, the Allies. We work towards the successful obtainment of necessary items and information by the Hetalia Academy, or return of stolen item's, blackmail information, or hacked files to their proper owners."

The twins both looked totally lost.

"Ok, you lost me at 'formulate.'" Hyung Soo said.

"You lost me at 'skills.'" Yong Soo stated.

"No time; just come with us!" Yao ordered.

His brothers didn't object, who would when their older brother who was supposedly gone forever had just shown up out of the blue to take them somewhere?

As they exited the home, Yao heard a soft high whistling noise.

"Shit!" Yao barked furiously, taking off, pushing the twins ahead of himself.

They sprinted off of the road and were knocked off their feet when an explosion tore through the home, blowing the roof from the building and causing smoke and fire to erupt into the sky.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> That's all for now, please drop a comment down below, they help the kids avoid the burning rubble, and please leave kudos if you haven't been here before! Thanks for reading!


	10. Up his Sleeves

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "Just peachy."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Explosions everywhere! Please enjoy!

Rubble spiraled into the sky and rained down from the cloud-speckled beyond.

A train of smoke breached the blue and worked it's way lazily into the heights, Yao opened his eyes, he'd flung as arm over each twins and pinned them to the ground, half-covering each of them himself, protective big brother instincts kicking in.

"Are you ok?" He asked worriedly as he stood up.

Yong Soo rolled over and coughed as Hyung Soo groaned.

"Just peachy."

"Our house!" Yong Soo cried in horror, the building, or what was left of it, was on fire. The entire second level had been engulfed in fire, and currently, jabbed pieces of flipped furniture were helping to spread the flames. Thankfully nothing had spread to the nearby houses yet, but with such a loud explosion, authorities would be on the scene within minutes.

"They're after us. We need to go." Lukas said, taking command as he pulled himself up from the floor.

That was when several loud whistles broke through the air, and at least twenty fairly impressive fireworks in bright reds, greens, and golds burst above their heads and crackled down the ground.

Several more balls of fire and light exploded in the air above them, one shot out sideways, and all of them shrieked.

"Hit the deck!" Yong Soo wailed as all of them dropped and covered their heads, the loose firework flew over them, missing their flattened formed by mere inches, and blasted into its flowering display a few yards away.

Yao sighed, rubbing his forehead as he stood.

"Li is still into firework displays, isn't he?" He asked, trying to ignore the dramatic backdrop of the firecrackers that were _still_ going off all over and above his old, half-burnt down-home.

"How'd you guess?" Hyung Soo grumbled sarcastically as he sat up, taking his twins' hand and allowing Yong Soo to pull him to his feet.

"I told Iceland not to let Li leave the park for any reason unless something happened, but knowing him, Icy's probably trying to pin him to the floor," Yao said.

"Is that our ride?" Yong Soo questioned, he and his twin both forcing the destruction of their childhood home out of their heads as a truck pulled around the corner.

Lukas squinted, and his eyes grew wide with horror.

"No...run!"

"Go! Go!" Yao shouted as they took off, legs pumping as Lukas and Yao were forced to slow their pace for the twins to keep up.

The side window of the truck chasing them rolled down, and a man stuck his upper body out, aiming a weapon.

"Into the side buildings! Head for the meeting point!" Lukas shouted.

Yao in the rear, Lukas in the lead, and the twins sandwiched in between, they darted into between two houses as several bullets chewed up the cement behind them.

"What's happening, Aniki!?" Yong Soo screamed in confusion.

"I'm sorry you got dragged into this, but you need to follow Norway! He'll take you back to our team! He'll keep you safe!" Yao ordered.

Lukas took to this role at once, spinning to check to make sure the twins were following him.

He was astonished to see Yao running back towards the street.

"China! They had guns! Did you not notice that!?" The younger student yelled after him.

Yao shrugged, and his voice floated back to them as he disappeared around the corner.

"I've got a few reasons to wear such big sleeves!"

"Oh, good god!"

Norway moaned in a rare display of emotion, this emotion happened to be dread.

He seized each of the twins, one by each wrist, and dragged them off behind him.

"Duck!" He ordered, shoving them behind a corner as another loud explosion burst through their eardrums, causing more smoke and several loud screams of the men chasing them.

The windshield of the truck smashed to the ground just a few feet away, shattering on impact.

"Aniki!" Yong Soo shouted as several more chunks of the van flew through the air and hit the ground with resounding strikes of metal.

"Where is he?" Hyung Soo demanded.

"I've heard stories of him surviving worse, get up, we need to go." Lukas hissed to them.

"What? Not without Aniki!" Yong Soo exclaimed, planting his feet and not looking ready to move an inch.

"He told me to take you to our meeting point. Once he finishes blowing up whatever it is he's blowing up, he'll meet us there, not back here."

Lukas spoke deliberately, pointing out good reasons to why they needed to go.

The twins glanced at each other, then back out towards the street, where sounds of conflict and several gunshots were still ringing out, and sighed.

"Fine." Hyung Soo mumbled.

"Good, run!" Norway sprinted off, and the twins took off behind him.

They wove their way through the backstreets, careful to avoid any roadways or places Morgan could have planted his people.

"Norway!"

He snapped his head to the side and felt sweet relief wash over him when he spotted Emil running towards him. The brother in him wanted to hug the teen, but the operative in him, which had far more power, said 'save it for later'. So Norway settled with delivering a sharp slap onto his brother's shoulder as an expression of his relief before falling into conversation.

"Li!" The twins cried in unison when they saw their little brother tripping along behind the red and black-garbed Hetalia student.

"Where're the other Nordic's?" Norway demanded.

Emil shrugged as Li leaned on his knees and caught his breath.

"Haven't seen them, where's China?"

Norway glanced over his shoulder as another small explosion just barely reached their ears.

"Probably using those minute bombs and throwing knives, he hides up his sleeves."

"Ah, I knew I heard more than one thing blow up." Emil said, nodding.

"And there were fireworks." Norway allowed his gaze to slid to Li.

"Dang it. I was saving those." Li mumbled.

"You still do that!?" Emil barked, shaking his head in frustration before focusing on the task at hand, saving their skins with three untrained charges to protect.

"We need to get to cover, their closing in on us from this side, and China alone can't hold his end off for long. We need to double back and help him."

Iceland continued.

"We do that, and he'll have our heads, he told me to get these two..."

Norway jacked a thumb in the twins' direction.

"To safety, and I don't dare disobey him. Plus, he's a senior student, he's year three, I'm only year two, and you're not even year one yet. When push comes to shove, he's got the authority over both of us."

"Why are we dicussing the chain of command here!? Year three or not, he's still only one guy!" Emil shot back.

Lukas's face hardened slightly. "You think I don't know that? Faster we find our team, faster we can go help China if he doesn't arrive at the meeting point."

Emil seemed torn for a long second.

"Fine, we find the other Nordic's. Then I'm going to strangle Denmark for stopping us from using comlinks." Iceland hissed.

"Not if I kill him first, let's go."

The group, still being forced to move at a slower pace due to the three siblings they were guarding, made their way in the direction of the rendezvous point.

They'd barely made it to the park when several other lackey's of Morgan's were spotted.

"Get down!" Emil hissed, seizing Li's hand and dragging him behind a dumpster in the alley. Lukas and the twins joined them, and Emil questioned his brother softly.

"Can we take them?" He asked.

Lukas was rummaging around in his pocket for something.

"Lucky, I ignored Den when he told me not the take anything serious."

Lukas said as he produced a handful of small, golf ball-sized, metal spheres.

Emil's eyes widened visibly as the three brothers they were transporting looked on worriedly.

"You took Finny's new blast balls? Are you out of your mind, who knows how much of a scene those will cause!" Emil hissed furiously.

Lukas gave him a flat look, incredulous he was concerned about such a thing and replied.

"They blew up a house, and China blew up their van, I'm sure by now Finn's blown _something_ because, well, it's Finland. Plenty of things have already blown up, will a few more hurt?" Lukas asked logically.

Emil massaged his forehead.

"Just go before I change my mind, and don't go blowing _yourself_ up!" He grumbled.

"Head around this building, that's where Finland, Denmark and Sweden should be waiting, I'll give you the chance."

Lukas stood and vaulted over the dumpster.

"Over here!" He shouted as he hurled one of the small weapons at the men.

It hit the ground, bounced slightly, and exploded with a flash, leaving a crater in the pavement and one enemy downed.

"One of Rome's brats! Get him!"

Emil winced as he heard a few shots fired.

Lukas dodged each of the bullets and tossed another explosive as he moved back down the street, the men chasing after him.

"We need to go now!" The Icelandic ordered, standing up and peering out from their hiding place.

"We're clear, let's move." He reported back down to his three companions.

They peeled out across the street, passing two empty black sports cars and a black van that had clearly conveyed their attackers there. Several more explosions, shouts, and ricocheting gunfire echoed from a few yards away in another alleyway.

"Nor..." Emil desperately wanted to go aid his older brother but forced himself to trust Norway's skills, which had carried their team into the top five of the academy.

"This way!" The student barked, with quick, fast steps, they hurried several hundred yards at a breathless sprint, rounded the corner, and sure enough, there was parked the Nordic's black van.

Emil ran up to it as the three brothers looked on, constantly glancing back over their shoulders.

Ice slammed his fist against the back door several times.

"It's us! Let us in!" He shouted.

He breathed a sigh of relief as the door opened to reveal Tino, hat askew and eyes wide with panic.

"Morgan's here, where's China and Norway?" He demanded.

"Nor needs our help in an alleyway down the street, but we did get these three out." Iceland said quickly as the three brothers behind him looked on in confusion.

"Good to see you lot are alright, I'm Finland." He said with a small wave, introducing himself to the befuddled soon-to-be new students.

"Hi?" Yong Soo tried.

"Wait, why Fin..." Li began to ask when his old friend cut him off.

"Don't care. Get in." Iceland ordered as he jumped into the back of the van.

Li, Yong Soo, and Hyung Soo joined him and Tino, settling down in the extra seats Yao and Kiku had ridden in on the way there.

"I am going to murder you later," Emil growled as he slapped Mathias in the back of the head.

"What did I do?" The Dane asked.

"You told us not to use coms; now we're scattered everywhere with no way to communicate, and I blame you," Iceland said shorted as he settled into his seat.

"Sve! Let's go get Nor!" Mathias shouted through the window.

"Right." The deep voice said through the window, and the van lurched into movement.

They pulled back around the same corner and were met with quite a sight to behold. Lukas was standing there, shoulders slumped, chest heaving, cross-shaped clip dangling from only a few strands of hair, even his cowlick seemed to be drooping. His jacket was gone, and all the rest of his clothes seemed to be charred slightly, along with several rips. His vest was hanging open with several buttons missing. His pale complexion was smothered with streaked black soot from the blast balls. He had a nasty scrape on his left shoulder than seemed to be oozing blood without any severe bleeding actually occurring.

Without a word, he walked around to the back of the van, Tino quickly opened the doors.

"Nor...?" Tino began his concerned question.

"Den, you're dead," Lukas said darkly as he, too, backhanded the Dane hard in the back of the head, tossing his spiky blonde locks forward.

"Why does everyone want me to die!?" He asked angrily.

"You ok?" Emil asked, coming to a said to check his older brother's shoulder.

"Fine." Norway snapped, yanking his shoulder away.

Emil tried not to but looked slightly hurt at his brother's anger when he'd attempted to help with what was clearly a painful injury.

Norway shook his head once and forced his expression to soften slightly, the tenseness of the moment was getting to him.

"Thanks." He said quickly.

Emil nodded once to him, quickly reading the grayish blonde teen's stress.

"If I can ask a quick question?" Yong Soo asked, raising his hand as if he were in a classroom.

"No." All of the Nordic's said at once in monotone unison as Lukas completed the team and settled down at his station.

"Um...but it's not a yes or no question." Yong Soo pointed out.

"Can it wait?" Iceland asked.

"I guess so." Yong Soo mumbled.

"Great, then put it in the back of your head, do not move from those seats unless told otherwise or you have a gun in your face, and focus on not dying." Mathias suggested as Tino tapped away at his keyboard.

Yong Soo blinked, horrified at the very idea.

"Ok." He squeaked, and the three of them fell silent, watching the highly trained team at work.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Things have heated up, please drop a comment down below, they help Norway stop bleeding, and please leave kudos if you haven't been here before! Thanks for reading!


	11. Taking Losses

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "Well...I'll be seeing you all soon."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know a couple of the people reading this have already read the story when it was originally posted on FF, but for those of you who haven't here's the big doozy chapter! Please enjoy~

"Good thing Headmaster puts a tracker in our uniforms. I can track down China and Japan this way. It'll be some tricky hacking work, though, I don't have the passcodes." Tino said as his fingers clattered across his keyboard. 

Emil was scrolling through a screen of possible exit routes with Lukas prepping the weapons and Mathias watching, his expertise not being of use at the moment.

"Japan!?" The twins both looked shocked, and Li looked relieved to hear that what Emil had said had been the truth.

"Well...duh," Mathias said.

"But...Kiku is with you too?"

"Do _not_ use anyone's names right now!" Lukas ordered sharply, turning a harsh glare upon the twin who had spoken.

"Ok! Ok! Sorry..." Yong Soo exclaimed, trying not to make Lukas any more ticked than he already was.

Sweden picked up their speed as they passed by the destruction Norway had caused. The smaller side windows and back windows of the van giving view to craters in the street and unconscious members of Morgan's squad scattered about like leaves blown by the wind.

"Stop!" Emil screamed suddenly.

Sweden slammed on the brakes, and everyone was thrown forward as the van lurched to a stop.

Li, Yong Soo, and Hyung Soo all stared in slack-jawed shock out the small side window they shared to see something they never imagined they'd see.

Their two older brothers, missing for years, one always kind and loving, the other soft-spoken and shy.

Viciously beating a squad of armed attackers into the ground.

"Duck!" Yao shouted, his brother obeyed, dropping down on one knee as the Chinese used his back as a launchpad and flew through the air, both feet connecting with the charging man's chest.

Yao flipped backward off of his weight as he slammed to the floor.

"The van!" Yao barked.

"Right!" Kiku sprinted suddenly towards a corner shielded by shadows, reached in, and picked up the limp form of his sister.

"MEI!" The three brothers yelled out, crowding each other to see out the window as Kiku ran for the van.

Tino threw open one of the back doors, and Kiku handed Mei up into Mathias's arms. The Dane cradled her against his chest to make sure she didn't fall as he pulled back into the car.  
  


"Go!" Kiku ordered, stepping back and slamming the door shut.

Without getting in himself.

"Japan!" Emil cried as Kiku turned and immediately was confronted by one of the attackers trying to force his way onto the van. Kiku shoulder tackled the goon, backing him up and giving the van precious room to move without hitting someone.

"Sve, give us some space!" Mathias called as he laid Mei onto Yong Soo's lap.

"Mei Mei..." Yong Soo whispered as he brushed the hair from his face, checking for bruises or blood.

"She's only knocked unconscious, it might be a light concussion, but she'll be fine, I promise," Emil said as he checked Mei's head with the medical training that, naturally, was also administered at Hetalia Academy, hoping to be soothing.

Sve pulled forward down the rest of the demolished street and drove off around the corner, stopping there and getting out himself.

"Fin, take the wheel." He ordered in his deep voice as he took off to aid Yao and Kiku.

"I'm going to! I want to show these goons who they're messing with!" Iceland opened the back door, swung his legs out, and chased after Sweden.

"Idiot."

A still scraped up and slightly charred Lukas muttered while following him.

"No way you get all the fun! I'm gonna help!" Mathias was after them as well.

"Guys! Wait!" Finland called after them as they all plunged into the alleyway where the men had pinned the older students.

Tino's mind was whirling as he tried to figure out the best odds for survival of the four V.I.P's that Rome had trusted them to protect.

_I can't fight, I'm not strong enough to hold off more than one of those guys. I probably couldn't even handle that. I know these three are trained in martial arts as Yao said, but they're all shell shocked from what's going on, their two missing brothers return, their home explodes, their sister gets knocked out cold by a squad of armed men sent to capture them. There's no way they can stay focused in a fight after all that. But, I need to protect them...how?_

If there was to be a time when Tino's calculating mind let him down, it wasn't going to be today.

"Alright, I need you guys to listen to me, do you know where the grocery store is?"

"Store!?" Li asked, appalled that Tino was talking about groceries at a time like this.

"Go there, get inside, and stay somewhere with a lot of people. Morgan doesn't want to expose himself as a criminal, and his men wear the company logo, so his men won't be able to follow you into a crowded area without being exposed."

"What about you?" Yong Soo asked as Hyung Soo lifted up their unconscious sister.

"I have to stay with the van and man the heavy weapons we do have. Plus, once I drop you by the alley, I'll floor it the opposite direction to make them think I'm trying to get you away from the action. If they spot you, I'll shoot them down before they can even take a step."

As he spoke, Tino drove the van towards one of the alley's that split the buildings from the main street and popped the back door.

"Now go! Go!"

The three of them, carrying Mei, leaped out of the van and sprinted in the direction of the more densely crowded parts of town, instead of the empty lots and work-day deserted homes they were currently surrounded by.

Keeping his eyes on the rearview mirror, Tino made a show of roaring the engine, firing the van away down the street in the opposite direction of the fight that was going on.

Having put some distance between them, he pressed a button that folded away part of the divider wall so he could get to the steering wheel when necessary, trying to shake the ominous feeling crawling under his skin, him like a spider ensnaring him in a web.

**_The Fight._ **

Mathias caught a final soldier of Morgan in the stomach with his shoulder and heaved him off of the ground, brutally ramming him into a brick wall. The crack of his head on the surface made it clear the man wouldn't be getting up anytime soon.

"Is...that all of...them?" Emil asked between heavy breaths, rubbing his scraped and bruised knuckles.

"Yes...I believe...so." Kiku said, looking around at the downed squadron sent to attack them.

"Not yet."

The seven snapped their heads up to see a man in a pristine black pinstriped suit standing up on the edge of the building that made up one side of the alley they were in. He had a waxy pale complexion. He had cold light brown hair in a tousled style, watery pale blue eyes, and he was holding a small black remote.

"You...you're Rooke Morgan!" Emil shouted, pointing up at him.

Morgan's cold blue eyes glinted as he straightened his black tie.

"Oh yes, that is correct, and you must be Rome's dear little brats. From his beautiful new school. Why, you know, you should be more respectful to me. I'm an alumnus, after all, of its predecessor, before the original establishment was destroyed, and he built that obnoxious place on the cliffside. It should have been me you call Headmaster, not that foolish man-child."

"Headmaster Rome was a better operative than you ever were!"

Mathias shouted, confident in their superior's abilities.

Morgan sneered.

"I want to see Rome. Not just Rome, though. I want to see his beloved new school crash and burn. I want to see his face crack and split with despair as all of his faithful operatives die, or are finally caught up to for their crimes. Bright young lives snuffed out due to his incompetence."

"You're one to talk about crime!" Emil pointed up at the man.

"You only made your fortune through lies! Cheating and stealing and...and...you're worse than us! Way worse!" He shouted, dropping his arm to the side with his hands balling into fists.

Morgan shook his head at him.

"You're far to young to understand such things. I'd never expected you to be able to consider the veins of this situation you've been dragged into. I've got something, though. A little surprise. Something that will make Rome give me what I want. I want war, I want to prove that my army is superior to his 'students.' To his little criminals who slither around thinking they're doing the 'right thing.'"  
  


He held out his remote, a small thing, sleek, with a single depressed button barely visible by those glaring daggers at him from the ground.

"And I have just the way to do it."

He pressed the button.

Around the corner and a couple hundred yards up the street, Tino's van erupted into a fireball. The heat was felt even from so far, all of the teens crossing their arms over their faces from the sudden rippling wave.

All of the Nordic's, along with the two Asian brothers, stared, eyes wide with disbelief, as Morgan dropped the remote and crushed it beneath his heel.

"Well...I'll see you all soon. Pleased to make your accquaintance...I'm sure I've made quite the sound impact."

With that, he turned as disappeared from the rooftop.

The moment he was out of sight, the group of operatives ran out of the alleyway and around the corner to be met with a horrifying sight.

The van was nothing but a burnt-out skeleton. The roof had been blasted off and lay, bent up like nothing but a tin can, a few feet away.

"No..." Yao whispered Kiku had put a hand over his mouth.

"No...no..."

They all stood there, frozen, when.

"Aniki!"

Yao nearly cried with relief when he and Kiku's four younger siblings came tearing from the opposite direction.  
  


"We're alright!" Li called.

Hyung Soo was still carrying Mei, his twin and Li were right behind him as the entire family swamped together in a hug. Yao took Mei instantly into his arms and clutched tightly at her prone yet breathing form.

"Thank god."

Yao caught Kiku murmuring as he was pulled into a hug by Yong Soo.

"Wait...where's Finn?"

The Nordic had all been smiling at the family reuniting when they realized a particular person hadn't been among them.

"He was in...oh my god is that the van?"

Li asked in horror as he stared at the flaming heap of metal and smoke and warped electronics.

"No...Finny, he wasn't in the van? Fin wasn't in there, right!?" Mathias demanded, his voice cracking.

Hyung Soo nodded stiffly.

"Tino!" Mathias wailed his dear friend's real name as Lukas covered his eyes, Sweden clenched his fists tightly and gritted his teeth, and Emil froze up.

"Guys..."

Emil moved forward toward the intense heat of the far from dying flames and picked up something he'd spotted a couple yards from what once had been their van.

He lifted the still warm, flat, slightly puffy hat that had almost always been perched jauntily atop their team's techie's head.

Emil held the hat with both hands, tears pricking at his eyes as he saw the dark liquid staining the inside.

"Blood..." He hissed as he felt helpless tears roll down his cheeks, shoulders shaking.

All of them were trapped in a moment where, for the first time in history, Hetalia Academy _lost_ an operative in the field.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> O-O  
> Yup. We got character death up in this. Please drop a comment down below, they help Morgan burn in the pits of hell, and please leave kudos if you haven't been here before! Thanks for reading!


	12. Flashdrive

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "You say Rooke wanted a war? He's got one."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here we go, please enjoy~

**_In the Headmaster's office the next day._ **

Rome had his usual grin on his face as the Nordic's entered.

It faded slightly when only four entered instead of five, one, Emil, carrying a black bag, made for conserving any evidence.

"Sir...the mission was successful. All of Yao's siblings are safe, his sister is in the infirmary, but she's woken up since. All of them are now officially enrolled as Taiwan, North Korea, South Korea, and Hong Kong, respectively."

Lukas said. His voice was usually pretty cold, but this went beyond that. It was completely flat, utterly emotionless.

"Good to hear, was Tino hurt? I notice he's not among you." Rome asked, concern painting a picture of innocence, he was still unaware.

Emil didn't trust himself to open his mouth; Lukas was facing the same problem now that he'd finished the part he'd carefully rehearsed on the walk there. Mathias had already put a hand over both of his eyes in an attempt to hide his devastation.

"Sir...Tino...he was manning our vehicle while the rest of us were holding off the soldiers...he saved the rest of Yao's siblings from...from..."

Now even Berwald's voice was slightly constricted.

"His van was blown up by Morgan himself. We saw him. He said he wanted war and knew how to get it. We saw him push the button, and he caused Tino's van to erupt into a fireball. All we recovered was...this."

Emil made his way forward and set the bag onto the desk with shaking hands. Rome opened it and gently removed Tino's blood-stained hat from the bag. Holding it as if it were delicate glass, Rome shook his head slowly.

"I-I..."

Not trusting himself to hold the precious last piece of Tino the team had left, he tucked the hat back into the bag, and Iceland gratefully took it back.

Rome suddenly slammed both palms down onto his desk, causing all of his students to jump and the items on his desk to shudder.

"Morgan! No...Carthage!"

The Nordic's all glanced at each other, lost between the two names, and yet stoked by some sort of dark emotion that rejoiced at seeming the Headmaster seething with such fury.

"He _will_ pay for this." Rome continued.

"You say Rooke wanted a war? He's got one."

**_A month and a half later._ **

Li sprinted around the track; he'd gotten his own uniform, similar to his old clothes in red and black.

"To slow!"

Mei whipped past him, her black dress, hemmed a few inches short of her feet, snapping behind her as if to mock her little brother.

"No fair!" He cried after her as she hurtled up onto the first step blocking their path, planting a foot firmly against it, she leaped to the wall behind it.

Her dress had red trimming, and several red zig-zagging lines as decorations along with a red belt cinched tight and high around her waist.

"Life's not fair, get used to it!" She called back to him.

Kicking her feet a few times to get momentum, she swung herself over the wall and performed a front flip off the top of it, dress billowing, she dropped and landed perfectly, doing a dive roll for extra credit, before taking off for the finish line.

"C'mon, Li! You can catch her!" Emil cheered for his friend.

"Doubtful!" Li choked out as he heaved his shoulders over the wall, overly long sleeves dangling from the edge.

"Go Mei Mei!" Yong Soo cheered from the opposite side, hopping madly up and down. He wore a pair of black pants and shoes, a red loosely fit long sleeve underneath, and a wrapped vest-like piece atop it in black. His twin brother, Hyung Soo, stood next to him; he wore the exact same uniform, except his vest was red, and his long-sleeve was black.

Of course, his sleeves were too long, who knew why all the members of this family, save Kiku, wore such long sleeves. Emil knew for a fact that when Kiku was done with his studying and lightning-quick computer work for his team, he also wore a Japanese style jacket, and that, for an unknown reason, had overly long sleeves to give Yong Soo a run for his money. 

"That's seven wins in a row!" Mei cried in victory as she skipped the final yard to cross the finish line and did a little pirouette, taking a bow after that.

She smiled, hands on her hips, as her little brother came puttering over the line a minute, leaning on his knees with his bangs shadowing his face, panting.

"Too...fast..." He moaned.

She patted him on the back with one hand as she adjusted the red flower in her hair with the other hand.

"Maybe you'll win someday. Just you watch, next win, I'm gonna get Kiku-nii!" She exclaimed confidently.

"Good luck with that, he may be a techie, but he's way too quick for you." Emil joked as he stood up and walked over to them.

The four siblings had formed a team named 'East Asia' after their home countries and code names.

When Emil had asked how all of them, save the twins, of course, had ended up being born in different countries, all of them had taken on disgruntled faces and grumbled.

"A very long very stupid, very irritating very unpleasant story."

Before brushing it off.

"Emil! Headmaster wants to see us!"

Mathias's voice cut across the gymnasium.

"Kay!" Emil shouted back.

"See you guys later." He waved to his friends, who all offered their farewells and good luck on his newest mission before Emil turned to join Mathias at the door.

"Nordics." Rome greeted as the four of them entered his grand office.

"What have you got for us this time, boss?" Mathias asked his voice, as usual, chipper.

Rome's face darkened, "I've got a new mission for you against Morgan."  
  


The tone changed. The facade of normalcy dropped like nothing but a flimsy curtain. The loss of their comrade Tino was still fresh in their minds, and they found themselves at a loss over certain little things that never mattered before. 

For example, Tino's workbench. 

While the rest of the workshop area had been used aplenty since his demise, Tino's workbench, tucked away against the far wall, had remained untouched, that strange doo-dad he'd been fiddling with the day Emil had arrived at the academy still atop it, in the exact same position that the petite teen had dropped it in. All of them recalled how he'd exclaimed excitedly.

"There we go, all ready for me to wrap it up when we get back!"

Before they'd left to meet Yao and Kiku at the exit lot.

Now that invention would never be completed, along with so many other ideas scrawled across the notepads and half welded parts scattered about the small four-foot desk of metal and wood.

Along with so many dreams that would never become realities.

"What's the job?" Lukas asked, voice a tone darker.

Rome tapped a few keys on his keyboard, and the flat screen above and behind him lit up, springing to life.

All of the Nordic's head's instantly swiveled up to it.

A 3-D schematic of an old bunkhouse far outside the city appeared.

"Morgan's forces have claimed several of these bunkers all around town. This particular one, according to our techies Kiku, Li, and Gilbert..."  
"Wait." Emil interrupted his Headmaster.

"Yes?" Rome asked, raising his eyebrows at Emil's voice.

All of the Nordic's have looks of varying surprise on their faces.

"Gilbert...as in Gilbert, Ludwig's older brother, as in Gilbert, Prussia, as in Gilbert, mister 'I am the most totally awesome.' He's a techie?"

Rome smirked, "He works as a fighter and gadget guy for his team, but a little known fact about mister 'awesome' is that he's a genius when it comes to computers and hack attacking."

Berwald did his furious face, and everyone found themselves waiting for Tino to yelp out of fear and nearly collapse.

Of course, this didn't happen, and the Nordic's found themselves fueled by grief once again.

"Anyway." Rome realized he could continue, now that the question was at an end.

"According to Kiku, Li, and Gilbert, this safe house."

He caused the image on the screen to begin revolving.

"Right here."

He paused the 3-D image and zoomed it in on the second floor of the small, tank-like building.

"They're storing files containing workforce, weapons, and others that could be incredibly helpful as we plan our attack strategy. The entire school is behind you; we're all enraged, even the students who...didn't know Tino as well as you four; we all want revenge, but we know you all want it more than anyone. I understand what it's like to lose a friend; believe me I do. But stay on mission with this, and if you see Morgan, do _not_ attack him; it would be suicide at a time like this. Alright, move out tonight, dismissed."

**_At Rooke Morgan's bunkhouse_ **

They all knelt side by side on a small rise in the earth a couple of hundred yards from the safe house.

"Ok, we're clear, let's get going." Mathias hissed, and all of them sprinted down the hill, knees bent, and heads ducked, keeping under the radar of any prying eyes thanks to their black clothes.

Moving in pairs, Lukas with Emil and Mathias with Berwald, they inched through the small thicket of trees and low shrubs.

Berwald shuffled closer to the fence that gated off the whole facility; every couple feet it was plastered with a NO TRESPASSING sign.

"Remember the good old days when signs like those actually made us stop?"

Mathias chuckled to Emil and Lukas before dodging out, darting across the open area, and vaulting the fence before Berwald could even realize what had happened.

"Hey." He muttered as he reached up with a gloved hand, seized the top of the fence post, and swung his massive frame over.

Emil took a running start, tried to vault the fence, but stopped when he realized he was too short, seeing as both Mathias and Berwald were quite a bit taller.

"Oh, come on!" He groaned as he jumped and latched onto the top, but was stuck with spinning legs trying to pull himself over without scraping against the harsh metal wiring.

"Need some help?" Lukas asked from below.  
Emil went limp, legs dangling a few inches from the ground.

"Yes." He admitted, and Lukas instantly wove his fingers together and gave him a leg up, pushing Emil over. From the top of the fence, Emil was able to leap and land gracefully; when he saw Mathias was turning blue trying not to laugh at his failed climbing attempt, he punched him lightly in the chest.

"Shut up, Den." He grumbled.

"I didn't say anything," Mathias said in a good-humored voice as Lukas easily scaled the fence and joined them on the other side.

Emil hurried over to look up at the ledge of the window as Lukas set up one of Tino's final inventions.

There had been no question about retiring the weapons now that no one was there to repair or improve them, but Tino's design, as it had always been, was flawless, and with a few easy pushes of a button, a camera blinding laser was concealing their presence.

Emil aimed another of Tino's gadgets at the ledge, a sort of gun, but instead of a barrel, it had a sideways cylindrical canister.

He pulled the trigger, and a spring-loaded rope ladder shot out with a soft _bomf_ and latched onto the window ledge, locking into the place with two powerful clamps.

The youngest of the team yanked twice of the ladder, found it to be sound, and scaled it in the blink of an eye.

He cupped one hand to see through the window and after a moment's delay.

"All clear," Emil whispered back down Lukas as he slid open the window with a metal bar similar to the one Lukas had used to open Mei's window on that long-ago mission. Lukas climbed up the ladder quickly, feeling it sway in time with his pulls and steps, and Mathias followed with Berwald remaining behind on lookout to be sure the camera blinder didn't malfunction and the ladder stayed in place.

Mathias followed Lukas into the small room. It contained a wide desk of plain pale wood, atop the desk sat a large computer with several papers scattered next to it.

Emil quickly took a seat in the plush leather swivel chair and inserted another one of Tino's final inventions; it appeared to be a simple flash drive. Still, it riddled out the passcode of the computer in a matter of minutes.

Those few minutes ticked by as Mathias watched the door, and Lukas crouched in the windowsill, constantly glancing over his shoulder.

Emil's face was illuminated by the ghostly bluish glow of the screen as, finally, the code appeared on the flash drive's miniscreen, which was atop it.

"I'm in," Emil reported as he entered the code and removed the codebreaker drive, inserting the one Headmaster Rome had given them to burn the files onto.

"Ok, got them, let's get out of here, the guard will be along to check this room in..."

Emil checked his watch.

"Two minutes, according to Gilbert," Emil said, eager to escape the crushing pressure. Gilbert had agreed to assist the Nordic's in any of their technological endeavors so long as they didn't question him and didn't tell anyone about his former techie status.

"Okay, let's bolt." Mathias agreed as Emil jumped hurriedly from the chair.

His sudden hasty movement toward the window caused a few pages on the desk to drift to one side.

Mathias was about to follow when he saw a flash drive hidden beneath the papers.

"Hey, Emil, this yours?" He asked, holding up the drive.

Emil glanced over his shoulder.

"No." He said shortly.

"Ditch it; we have to move." Lukas hissed as he seized Emil's wrist and steadied him as the younger swung onto the rope ladder they'd used to enter the building. Emil sharply exclaimed about how he didn't need his brothers help to get on a simple ladder as Mathias studied the drive.

He had a feeling about what it contained, and he was sure that if he left it behind, he'd come to regret it.

So, not seeing the harm, Mathias, instead of leaving the drive behind as he was told, slipped it into his pocket.

_After all, what could one little flash drive hold?_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> That's all for now, please drop a comment down below, they help get REVENGE, and please leave kudos if you've never been here before! Thanks for reading!


	13. Interrogation

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "...but you're not."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Whoops O-O things got dramatic again. 
> 
> Please enjoy~

_**Back at Hetalia Academy. 1:00 AM** _

They'd returned and given Headmaster Rome the info he'd requested, he'd given them the usual, 'good work out there today, we'll be moving in on Morgan any day now' speech, and they'd returned to their base.

The other three were fast asleep, but Mathias was awake; he'd snuck down the ladder from his room in his PJ's, white and blue fleece pants, and an old overlarge tee shirt from some rock concert, to finally find out what was on this drive he'd nicked out of Morgan's safe house office.

The tall blonde Dane slotted the drive into the side of his laptop; he'd elected to watch it down here; the farther from his slumbering teammates, the better.

Stifling a yawn as he pulled up the content, he found a video saved on the drive.

"Interesting..."

Mathias certainly hadn't been expecting this.

He double-clicked on the video and, after lowering the volume so only his ears could hear, he pressed play.

An unimaginable image appeared, brightening the dark screen and causing an instant, unavoidable flow of tears to force their way into Mathias's eyes.

It took all of Mathias's effort not to punch himself to check he wasn't dreaming, he settled with lightly slapping himself.

He wasn't dreaming, and the matted head of usually bright bouncing blonde hair was visible. The torn and bloodstained Hetalia uniform with nothing but the thin black long sleeve remaining, the red emblem still there on the lapel, draping the painfully thin frame, painfully detailed. The once bright eyes radiating misery were there on the screen, not a figment of a grieving imagination.

"What the hell..." Mathias hissed, after a few moments of staring, he couldn't deny it.

There, on the paused screen, in a video, according to the date on the flash drive, that was taken less than a week ago, was his dear friend and teammate.

_Finland, Fin, Finny._

Every name his mind generated fit the face, fit the dulling eyes, fit the weary, tensed frame.

_Tino._

"LUKAS EMIL BERWALD GET YOUR ASSES DOWN HERE RIGHT NOW!" Mathias screamed at the top of his voice.

There was a chaotic clatter from the three bedrooms up above. Thuds, shrieks, curses, and bangs filled the once ominous silence. This went on until the doors were all ripped open in perfect unison, slamming against the walls, and the three Nordic's came flying out of their rooms, all donning sleepwear instead of their usual pristine red and black uniforms.

"Den, you are _SO_ annoying!" Lukas barked, gripping the railing with a massive bed head and his bangs drooping low into his eyes without his cross shaped clip, in a rare show of a raised voice.

After all, he'd just fallen asleep, poor guy.

"Ok, you've scared the shit out of all of us at this god forbidden hour! What do you want?" Emil growled as Berwald slid his glasses onto his face and blinked the sleep from his eyes.

"Come down, you need to see this," Mathias ordered, checking to make sure he didn't imagine what was on the screen yet again.

The three still complaining Nordic's slid down the ladder rails one by one and walked over to where Mathias sat at his desk/workbench in the back area.

"What, did you find a new video game you stupid...no..."

All insults and jibes were cut off at the sight of the broken looking fifth Nordic on the screen.

"Den...where did you get this?" Lukas asked slowly, leaning on the back of Mathias's chair.

"That flash drive I found, hidden under those papers on the desk at Morgan's safe house." Mathias replied, not even having enough proper thought left in his mind to throw in the casual 'that you told me to ditch'. He was too shocked and joyous and horrified all at the same time to bother with rubbing things in Lukas's face.

"It's a video. Play it." Berwald ordered, his deep voice shaking everyone awake.

Mathias took a deep breath and clicked the little triangle in the corner.

Instantly Tino's form began moving, they realized he was shivering heavily.

Winter was beginning to set in, where ever the final Nordic was imprisoned obviously didn't have a heating system.

"I've tried time, and again, I've been reasonable, offered you your freedom, a hot meal, warm clothes, and even a spot on my own tech team." The voice was purred from behind the screen, the tone sounding like a father gently chiding an unruly child.

Not the horrific situation now being faced.

"As if I'd join with a _monster_ like you after what you've done to me." Tino hissed.

A sigh came from that disarming voice. 

"Okay, I _will_ admit maybe the last one was a bit of a stretch, but it still stands. All of my offers still stand."

Mathias's knuckles turned white as he gripped the edge of his worktable. 

Carthage, better known as Morgan, had entered the screen, he was pacing back and forth behind the petite teen. His suit was pristine, not a hair on his head was out of place, a stark contrast from the bedraggled teen sitting in a cold metal chair in front of him. Tino's entire body was stiff as if he expected to be struck at any moment.

But that didn't stop him from speaking. "You can shove your offers up your..."

"Now now, no need to sully your young mouth with any words you might regret," Morgan said with that similar tone, scolding yet not at all threatening.

Somehow that made it even scarier to hear.

Tino remained silent.

"I'll ask again, where is your operations base?"

"I'll say it again, that is classified information I have not been cleared to give to anyone but..."

"Yeah, yeah." Morgan seemed to be getting very annoyed with Tino.

"Atta boy, Tino," Mathias whispered, Emil smirked dryly in agreement, pissing off Morgan in the state he was in deserved a round of applause.

The pacing continued for a few moments more until Morgan spoke again. "I suspect that school on the clifftop. Why wouldn't I, you're all in uniforms that resemble theirs..."

Everyone held their breath.

Tino's eyes in the video didn't change even slightly. "You really think Headmaster is _that_ stupid? A fancy private school? As a spy headquarters? And after the last thing they'd done was essientally identical, and it ended up destroyed? Gimme a break..."

"He's covering for us..." Emil murmured, barely able to believe Tino could maintain such mental strength after what had clearly been a harrowing experience.

Morgan stopped directly behind Tino and narrowed his eyes at the boy.

Tino twisted his torso to look his captor in the eye, the Nordic's watching the screen winced when they heard his hiss of pain and the soft clinking of chains that must of held him to the chair in the center of the room.

Thoughts flew through Mathias's mind, and he was sure they were mirrored in all of his comrades.

_Is he hurt? What did Morgan do to him? Is he really so much of a monster that he'd torture a kid? How long has Tino held out with this?_

"Well, looks like this didn't go well, just like the last hundred or so ti..."

Before the onscreen Tino could finish his witty retort, Rooke Morgan backhanded him across the face.

"Tino!" Every of the four remaining Nordic's clenched their fists, wishing they could simply leap into the computer and punch the former Ancient Academy trainee back for Tino's sake.

Tino spat hard to one side, blood coloring the spittle, he'd slumped back around, now his back was to Morgan once more.

"You're not much of a fighter, are you?" Morgan abruptly switched topics.

Tino scowled at the ground and said nothing.

"You're almost a foot shorter than all of your teammates. Why...you're practically worthless to them for everything but tapping a few codes into a computer and making things blow up, correct?"

Tino winced, these topics were his insecurities, were the weak points in his brilliant mind.

"Don't listen, Tino, that's not true..." Emil murmured as if the older student could hear him.

"You know, if you were a more powerful fighter, perhaps your team wouldn't have left you in the van."

"They didn't _leave_ me. Someone had to say with our charges!" Tino snapped.

Though the imprisoned teen couldn't see, but the Nordic's could, Morgan smiled slyly, he was breaking him down.

"Yes, I suppose on _that_ occasion that is true, but honestly, what could you have done if my men had swarmed the van before you snuck those children to safety? Your 'charges' would have been able to put up more of a fight then you. Naturally, when my squad attacked you alone, you knocked several out with your gadgets, but once separated from them, they knocked you out at once, a bit of a tap to the head, if I recall."

"They nearly brained me," Tino growled.

"That's why his hat had blood on it..." Emil murmured, connecting all the dots.

Onscreen, Morgan continued.

"I did tell you your team thought you were dead, correct? They were so fueled with the desire to avenge you; it was almost admirable."  
Tino froze up, his eyes were wide with absolute terror.

"What...are you talking about?" He demanded.

Morgan shifted to stand to the side of the chair so Tino could look him in the eye.

"Oh, I forgot to tell you, did I? Well, a little over a week ago, your 'team' attempted to capture me, more like kill me, honestly. They went barging straight through this building but losing you caused them to be unfocused, prone to error. Let me think, the tall one...annoying, he was, burst around the corner first and took a bullet straight..."  
Morgan put a hand over his chest and Mathias felt his blood run cold when Tino realized what Morgan was implementing.

"Than the large one came, he saw the tall skinny one dying and rushed the squad. Killed one of my men, that one did, with another one of those explosive gizmo's of yours, but of course, he was downed as well. The two that look alike, you won't admit it, but I'm positive now they were brothers, the younger of the two was in the lead, but one of my men was ready for him, shot him in the stomach. He screamed and coughed up a good bit of blood before collapsing from another shot to the chest, and then the older's eyes were all on him, tried to help him instead of get away himself. Than...well, I think you can figure."

Tino's shivering had increased, his eyes were wide, they were brimming over with tears for his supposedly fallen friends.

"No."

Tino looked as though someone had just ripped out his heart.

"They...can't be..."

Mathias knew what Tino saw because he'd seen the same when he'd thought the techie gone. He was watching images of his teammates. Finland was seeing Mathias lying upside-down on the couch irritating Lukas. He was seeing Berwald terrifying him with his furious face. Seeing Emil dangling from the top of the climbing wall while Mathias laughed, the swinging boy screamed at him, and Lukas began to climb up to free his brother's harness from the grip it had become tangled around. Seeing all of his fondest memories and watching them slip away, knowing he'd never be able to make new ones.

The last people he had in this world, gone, or at least, he believes so.

Why would he push himself on any longer? What was the point if those four people he'd fashioned into a group of dear friends.

"We didn't even have a place to deliver their bodies, so we just left them behind this scraper. Sure enough, they were gone within the same night, their back up had taken them. So at least you can know they got a proper burial, wherever they ended up."

Tears had spilled from Tino's eyes, his head was hanging lower.

"I can't help but wonder..."

Morgan bent down to whisper in Tino's ear, and Mathias quickly increased the volume so they could hear what he said.

"What would have happened if you'd been a bit faster? A bit stronger? Maybe you wouldn't have been captured. If you weren't, they wouldn't have been so driven by grief instead of tactics, they wouldn't have charged into a heavily armed building so suddenly and without thought."

Morgan moved around to Tino's other side and continued.

"If _you_ were stronger. If _you_ were faster. If _you_ were better..."  
Morgan turned and moved to the door.

"... _but you're not_."

The door shut and locked behind him, and for a few seconds, all the hidden camera filmed was Tino, shoulders shaking as he thought himself now alone, quiet sobs breaching the silence, until the video ended.

Mathias, slowly and deliberately, so not to snap anything in half in his fury, removed the drive from the laptop and set it inside the drawer of his desk, closing it.

"T-That couldn't have been some sort of...animation, right?"

Emil choked out, all of the four were still in shock.

Mathias shook his head slowly.

"T-There's...no way it could have been. It was too detailed. His looks they may have been able to copy, but his mannerisms. And his...insecurities. There's no way Morgan could have known them when he blew the van, but after a month and a half of interrogation...even Tino would start to slip up."

Berwald slammed his palm down onto the table, jolting all of the students in the room.

"We need to go get him. He has nothing left to give now. Tino's alone, no parents, no siblings. With us gone, he's got nothing left to live for. He thinks we're dead. We need to prove him otherwise before Morgan finally makes him crack."

The muscular teen said.

Lukas shook his head, unclipped bangs bobbing.

"No. We don't want to make Morgan's story a reality; we need a plan, a course of action. And most of all...we can't tell Headmaster Rome."

"What!?"

"If we tell him, he'll try to do something to large scale, combine the rescue with other attacks."

"What's wrong with that? We're already in, why not plant a few explosives?"

Emil questioned.

Lukas gave a small smile, the edges of his lips tugging upwards slightly.

"Nothing, we're still gonna make Morgan pay for all this grief and suffering. But this is something we can't do alone, especially with our techie being the one needing rescue. We're gonna need to call in a few favors for this one..."

_"AII-YAH! You must be crazy!"_

_"What!? Tino survived!?"_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There we go! Please drop a comment down below, they help TINO STAY ALIVE BECAUSE HE SURVIVED, and please leave kudos if you haven't been here before! Thanks for reading!


	14. Teaming Up

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "What!? Tino survived!?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We're back! Sorry for the delay! Please enjoy~

**_In the computer labs the next day._ **

"What!? Tino survived!?" Kiku yelped in surprise.

"Quiet down!" Emil hissed to the older student

Kiku shook his head so hard his glasses slid down slightly.

"Tino's alive?" He whispered, swiveling his chair away from the large flat-screen display and keyboard he'd been working with to face Emil.

Emil nodded. "I swear it. We snatched a flash drive, and there was an interrogation video saved onto it. Tino was in it, and it was taken less than a week ago! He's alive, Morgan's just holding him captive!"

Kiku frowned, "How do you know the video hasn't been tampered with?"  
He asked in a clipped tone. 

"His mannerisms. His insecurities. They may have gotten his looks, but they could have never known about the worries, the concerns, the things that kept Tino up at night unless they actually interrogated him."

Emil put a hand on the desk next to them; he had settled into the empty chair at Kiku's side.

"Kiku, we need help. The Axis...you guys are some of the best in the academy, if you help us, Tino's as good as saved."

Kiku thought about it for a long moment. "Did Headmaster Rome give us the ok?"

Emil winced, "About that...this is more of a...personal operation. Yeah...he has no clue."

Kiku looked at Emil with an extreme head tilt, as if he'd just fallen off the train of Emil's reasoning.

"Are you stupid? This is a terrible idea; we can't do it without his permission." Kiku said, still keeping his voice down to a low hiss.

Emil looked at Kiku with begging eyes.

"If we tell him he'll try to big of an operation. It'll take to long. By then, Tino might do something he could regret. He's been trapped there for almost two months now. And thanks to that lying bastard Morgan now he thinks that I and the other three Nordic's are all dead because of him. That kind of thing could shatter him, Kiku. Unless we get to him _right now._ "

Kiku had a look of torn indecision on his face until finally, he made up his mind.

"It's thanks to Tino's sacrifice that my younger brothers and sister are safe here. What do you need me to do?"

Emil could have cried with relief; Kiku was one of the best tech experts in the academy, with his help, they could definitely do this.

"Get the rest of the Axis and come to our base tonight at 8:00. We're gonna have a planning session, and we can show you the drive video."

"Alright." Kiku agreed.

Emil exhaled as he stood and Kiku spun back to his keyboard.

"Thank's a lot, Kiku. We're gonna bring him home."

Kiku nodded.

"There's not a doubt in my mind."

**_In one of the training gyms._ **

"AII-YAH! You must be crazy!" Yao exclaimed.

"Sounds totally epic to me!" Alfred cried happily.

"I have only been meeting this 'Tino' one time, but I know he is being a good person." Ivan murmured.

"Why would you be telling us this, Lukas?" Arthur questioned.

Lukas sighed.

"We can't do this alone. We need the Allies."

"No! Impossible! Why would we get involved in some insane scheme the Headmaster doesn't even know about? Good cause or not, it's suicide!" Francis pointed out.

Lukas locked eyes with Yao, amber gold meeting violet gray.

Yao knew his younger siblings all owed their freedom and possibly their lives to Tino, and now Tino needed his team's help.

"Where do we meet you?" Yao asked firmly.

"EH!?" Francis nearly fainted at having been volunteered without his consent.

Everyone else on the Allies turned on him in shock.

The edges of Lukas's lips tugged upward yet again.

"At the Nordic base, 8:00. We'll be planning there, and moving as soon as we have a set plan."

"See you then." Yao agreed as the rest of this team stuttered, not really wanting to get involved with this.

Lukas bobbed his head once.

"See you then."

**_At the Nordic's base, 7:59 PM_ **

"We're a-here!" Italy sang as he burst through the door, followed by a panting Japan and an unreadable Germany.

For some reason, Italy had rallied his team into running to the base.

"Great," Lukas said.

The Allies stared at the Axis.

"We're...doing this with the Axis?"

"AAAAAAHHH! FRANCE!"

Italy was cowering behind Germany, and all the Allies were on edge.

Minus Yao, who was hugging his little brother and insisting on how they should do more jobs together.

"Please...I need personal space." Kiku moaned quietly, his face flushed pink as he clutched at his laptop, and Yao cuddled him.

"We needed the top three teams. That would be the Allies, the Axis, and us, the Nordic 4. But, if you guys will agree to work together, just this once, we can be the Nordic 5 again." Emil said.

Arthur sighed and looked across his teammate's faces.

Francis shrugged, "Don't put me in the same group with Germany."

Ivan smiled creepily. "We can all become one, da?"

"No, Ivan, not one. Friends, maybe, but not one." Yao lectured sternly, he'd finally released Kiku, who'd dissolved into a stuttering mess after his brother had crushed him with his overenthusiastic hug.

"I think it'll be boss! We'll be heroes! Of course, _I'll_ be the best hero, but you guys can be like...my sidekick's! How about that?" Alfred exclaimed happily, pumping his fist in the air above his head.

"Ignore him. That's just his way of saying, yes, we're in."

Kiku had recovered from Yao's affection attack and pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose while saying.

"The Axis will contribute to Tino's rescue as well."

"Nien. We can't work with the Allies, we do this without them, or we don't do it at all." Germany said firmly.

Kiku and Feliciano both jumped, with this trio, what Ludwig said went.

"Fine. Don't help the guy who got captured protecting Kiku's siblings."

Lukas said tauntingly.

Kiku glanced up at the imposing blonde team leader.

"I-I...if the Axis will not assist than I shall do so without them." Kiku said shakily, not used to going against the will of his team members.

Germany scowled than rubbed his forehead for a few moments as if stimulating his brain.

"Ludwig, c'mon. Tino's life is at stake here. I don't think we can handle losing him again." Mathias begged.

The other Nordic's nodded various degrees of pleading in their eyes.

Germany exhaled hard and groaned when he glanced at the Allies again before walking into the Nordic's living room area and settling into an armchair.

He leaned his elbows on his knees as Feli and Kiku joined him, Kiku settled on his knees on the floor, which appeared to be his preferred sitting position, and Feliciano splayed himself onto the back of one of the couches.

Germany locked his fingers together, and the first meeting of the Axis, Allies, and Nordic was called to order.

"Alright...what have you got in mind?"

**_The next day. 11:30 PM Morgan Corporations Skyscraper._ **

"I still think this is a terrible plan." Arthur had been trolling on like this during the entire hour they'd all spent crammed into the back of the Allies' car.

Asking for permission to take a single team cruiser out this late at night was hard to obtain, but the top team of the academy had managed it. Unfortunately, since already one car linked to the Hetalia Academy was loose on the town, it would have been unwise to ask to take out the Axis's tricked out sports car and the Nordic's tank-like van.

And, thus, ten of the most dangerous members of the Hetalia student body were sitting on the floor and each other as Feliciano's less than calm and controlled driving whisked them towards the Morgan Scraper.

"Dude, you're crushing me!" Alfred yelled.

"Not like I asked for this seating arrangement!" Arthur growled; he was sitting in the American's lap, and looking none too happy about it.

Emil was sitting in Lukas's lap.

"Tell Li about this, and I'll never talk to you again," Emil said as he studied the strange glint that bordered on joy in his brother's eyes.

_Suppose he's reminiscing about when I used to sit in his lap, and we would watch cartoons on the weekends..._

The Icelandic pondered this as Yao squirmed uncomfortably in Ivan's lap; he'd been landed with the Russian because everyone else had paired up so quickly he'd had no other choice.

Ivan looked simply delighted with the entire situation, of course, Ivan looked delighted at any given moment in time, except, of course, when someone threatened his sisters or pissed him off.

"WHOA!" Everyone screamed as they all were flung to the right, Ivan catching Yao around the waist to stop him from doing a face plant into the van's desks.

Arthur had tossed his arms around Alfred's neck to halt his own swift descent towards the floor.

Emil and Lukas had been flung from their seat in the back and rolled around the floor, ending up hugging against the far wall.

"ARE WE OUT OF CONTROL!?" Mathias wailed as he clung to Francis's cape.

"Nope!" Feli sang.

"IMBECILE!" Germany screamed as he seized Kiku by the back of the collar to stop him from slamming into the wall and possibly snapping his glasses on impact. The small boy flailed like a flag in heavy wind from his jacket. The van's tires screeched on the asphalt as they did several revolutions around the front right wheel. Finally, they swung up onto the left two wheels, and with a creak, dropped back down.

"We're a-here!" Feli called.

The second the car rolled to a halt, Yao jumped away from Ivan, Emil stood up quickly, and Alfred shoved his British teammate off of him and onto the dark-colored floor.

"Bloody hell, Italy! Was that what passes as driving in your country!?"

The blonde brit demanded as he stalked towards the tiny Italian that has just hopped merrily from the driver's side of the van.

"Sorry, England! There was this cute a-little kitty on the road, and I just couldn't risk a-hitting him! So I swerved around him, and it took me a sec to get us back a-under control!" Italy sang as if he had not a care in the world.

"Besides, we're right where you a-told me to be!"

Britain looked ready to strangle the easygoing boy but restrained himself.

"Let's just get this over with, coms?"

Kiku passed out the links and then gave each operative a small backpack.

"Now, we don't know where it is that Finland is being held within the facility, so we're going to spread throughout the building planting..."  
He gestured to the backpacks, not wanting to say it out loud for fear that they were already under surveillance.

"If you find Finland, report with your com, so the others know to stop searching rooms and continue with their set up. Once everyone's out, we end this, once and for all."

"All in to save Finny and for the epic three-way team-up?"

Mathias suggested, putting his hand out at the center of the circle the group had formed when they'd scrambled from the back of the van.

Lukas rolled his eyes.

"You're annoying, Den."

Still, he put his hand atop his teammates.

One by one around the circle, all the others joined until only Ludwig hadn't put his hand atop Alfred's.

"C'mon bro, we're all in the same academy...bring it in!" Alfred taunted, throwing an arm over the taller teens' shoulders.

Germany groaned and set his hand upon the eleven others.

"Hetalia on three? One...two...three!"

Mathias cheered.

"HETALIA!" All of the other students chanted, tossing their hands into the air.

"On that note, let's move!"

All of them bolted and fanned out, heading for their entry points.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> That's all for now, please drop a comment down below, they help the rescue mission succeed, and please leave kudos if you haven't been here before! Thanks for reading!

**Author's Note:**

> That's all for now! While I decided to edit these up, I haven't changed anything plot-wise, so it'll be pretty much the same. So, with that, please drop a comment down below, and please leave kudos if you haven't been here before. Thanks for reading!


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